Lahore: A Pakistani court today suspended the Punjab government’s detention order against 2008 Mumbai attack mastermind and LeT operations commander Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi under a public security act and ordered his immediate release.

Justice Muhammad Anwarul Haq of Lahore High Court suspended the detention of 55-year-old Lakhvi under Maintenance of Public Order after the government failed to present sensitive records against him in the court.

The judge ordered Lakhvi to submit two surety bonds worth Rs 1 million each for his release.

“The law officer had submitted important information about Lakhvi, but the court did not accept this and declared the evidence unsatisfactory,” an official of LHC told PTI.

Justice Muhammad Anwarul Haq on the last hearing on April 7 had directed the government’s counsel to submit record of secret documents about activities of Lakhvi today.

Lakhvi had challenged the March 14 order of Punjab government’s District Coordination Officer, Okara to detain him for 30 days.

Lakhvi’s counsel Raja Rizwan Abbasi argued that after the LHC’s earlier direction he had filed a representation before the Punjab home secretary against his “illegal” detention but the home secretary dismissed it and upheld the 30-day detention order issued by District Coordination Officer, Okara.

Abbasi pleaded that a person could not be detained beyond 90 days without obtaining an order from review board and the detention period of his client had gone beyond 90 days.

A provincial review board comprises judges of the high court.He pointed out that trial court had released Lakhvi on bail in December 2014, however, District Magistrate of Islamabad issued detention order against him.

Later, Islamabad High Court set aside Lakhvi’s detention and ordered the government to release him.

However, another detention order was issued by the DCO Okara and he was not released, the counsel argued.

He had pleaded the court to strike down the impugned order and order the government to release Lakhvi.

India had earlier strongly reacted to the IHC’s ruling on March 13, saying the overwhelming evidence against Lakhvi has not been presented properly before court by Pakistani agencies.

Lakhvi and six others – Abdul Wajid, Mazhar Iqbal, Hamad Amin Sadiq, Shahid Jameel Riaz, Jamil Ahmed and Younis Anjum – have been charged with planning and executing the Mumbai attack in November, 2008 that left 166 people dead.

Lakhvi, believed to be a close relative of LeT founder and Jamat-Ud Dawa (JuD) chief Hafiz Saeed, was arrested in December 2008 and was indicted along with the six others on November 25, 2009 in connection with the 26/11 attack case.

The trial has been underway since 2009.

(PTI)

Islamabad High Court declares detention of Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi under Maintenance of Public Order void.

Lakhvi is accused of being the mastermind of the 2008 gun and bomb attacks in Mumbai which claimed the lives of 166 people.

by Asad Hashim, Al Jazeera

Islamabad: A Pakistani court has declared the continued detention of Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi, the operational chief of the Lashkar-e-Tayyaba (LeT) and alleged mastermind of the 2008 Mumbai attacks, void.

The Islamabad High Court accepted an appeal from Lakhvi that challenged his detention under the Maintenance of Public Order (MPO) Act during a hearing on Friday.

It is unclear if Lakhvi, who has been in prison since 2009, will be released, as the government has challenged similar judgments in the past. He is currently in custody at Rawalpindi’s Adiala jail.

Lakhvi is accused of being the mastermind of the 2008 gun and bomb attacks in Mumbai which claimed the lives of 166 people and left more than 300 injured. The assault, which lasted more than 60 hours, was one of the worst attacks in India’s history, and badly affected India-Pakistan relations.

While no group claimed responsibility in the aftermath, India blamed it on the banned LeT, and in 2009 Pakistan responded by charging Lakhvi and others with responsibility.

On December 18, an anti-terrorism court in Rawalpindi granted Lakhvi bail in a casewhere he was named as the “mastermind” of the Mumbai attacks.

The government, however, challenged the court’s decision to grant bail, and held Lakhvi under the MPO. When Lakhvi challenged his detention under that law, which allows authorities to hold suspects for up to 90 days without a warrant, the Supreme Court sided with the government in maintaining his detention, saying the Islamabad High Court had rushed the decision to release Lakhvi.

On Friday, the High Court, after holding hearings on the matter, returned the same verdict. The government continues to challenge the original decision to grant Lakhvi bail, in a petition whose hearings are pending before the same court. In the petition, the Federal Investigation Agency’s special prosecutor states that prosecutors and witnesses have been threatened in connection with the case, Pakistan’s Dawn newspaper reported.

Lakhvi had also been granted bail on January 9 in another case pertaining to the 2009 kidnapping of Anwer Khan, an Afghan citizen, from a suburb of Islamabad.