India seeks UN intervention on Lakhvi's release

UNITED NATIONS (Web Desk/Agencies) – India has sought United Nations intervention in release of Mumbai terror attack mastermind Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi, saying it was in violation of the norms of the global body and it should raise the matter with Pakistan.

In a letter to the current chair of the UN Sanctions Committee Jim McLay, India's permanent representative to the UN, Asoke Mukherjee, said Lakhvi's release by a Pakistani court was in violation of the 1,267 UN resolution dealing with designated entities and individuals.

The sanctions measures apply to designated individuals and entities associated with terror groups including al-Qaida and LeT, wherever located.

In the letter by the Indian envoy, it was also mentioned that even the bail amount provided was against the sanctions' committee rule which calls for freezing the funds and other financial assets or economic resources of designated individuals and entities.

The sanctions' committee has five permanent and 10 non-permanent UN member-states in it.

The release of Lakhvi had also raised concerns in the US, UK, Russia, France and Germany with Washington calling for him to be re-arrested.

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, 55, a close relative of LeT founder and Jamaat-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.

A Pakistani court had on April 9 set free Lakhvi, a development which India said "eroded" the value of assurances repeatedly conveyed to it by Pakistan on cross-border terrorism.