New Delhi: India on Friday summoned Pakistan’s High Commissioner to India, Abdul Basit after Islamabad High Court’s ordered the release of 26/11 mastermind Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi.
India said it was ‘extremely upset’ over the court’s verdict and lodged a strong protest with the Pakistan government. The matter has been “raised at high levels” in Pakistan, official sources said.
Earlier, Minister of State for Home Affairs, Kiren Rijiju, criticised the Islamabad High Court’s decision, saying there should be no discrimination in terms of showing character of terrorists.
Rijiju also blamed Pakistani agencies for not presenting ‘incriminating evidence’ against Lakhvi properly in court.
“Today the Islamabad High Court accepted Lakhvi’s plea against his detention and ordered his immediate release,” a court official said.
He said IHC judge Noorul Haq Qureshi had declared the government’s order to detain Lakhvi under Maintenance of Public Order “illegal” and ordered his immediate release.
Raja Rizwan Abbasi, counsel for Lakhvi, said he would submit the court’s order to the administration of the Adiala Jail Rawalpindi for the release of his client.
“We haven’t yet received the court’s order. However, we will submit the same to Adiala Jail for immediate release of Lakhvi,” he said.
India reacted strongly to the IHC’s ruling, saying that overwhelming evidence against Lakhvi has not been presented properly before court by Pakistani agencies.
“It is the responsibility of the Pakistan government to take all legal measures to ensure that Lakhvi does not come out of jail,” India’s Ministry of Home Affairs said in Delhi.
Sources in Pakistan’s interior ministry said the federal government might detain Lakhvi under another public security order as the court had already restrained it from registering any other case against Lakhvi without prior permission.
“The HC has suspended the 30 days detention order MPO which was expiring this week. The government may detain him under a fresh detention order under the same law,” they said.
The last 30-day detention order was expiring this week.
This is the second time the IHC suspended the government’s order to detain Lakhvi under MPO.
Lakhvi had last month challenged his ‘fresh’ detention under Maintenance of Public Order. On December 18, 2014, the trial court (Anti-Terrorism Cout-I, Islamabad) granted bail to Lakhvi but he was detained next day under the MPO. However, the IHC suspended Lakhvi’s detention on ‘weak legal ground’.
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Lakhvi, a senior figure of the banned Lashkar-e-Toiba, is accused of being involved in planning, financing and executing the 2008 Mumbai attacks.