ISLAMABAD (Web Desk) – Three days after the Lahore High Court ordered re-release of Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi, the Islamabad High Court on Monday set a two-month deadline for a trial court in the Capital to conclude the 2008 Mumbai attacks case.
The anti-terrorism court was warned that it would accede to the government’s plea to cancel the bail granted to Zakiur Rehman if it failed to do so.
The deadline to the trial court to conclude the case against Lakhvi and six others was handed down by a two-judge bench headed by Justice Noorul Haq Qureshi.
The bench was hearing the government’s plea for cancellation of 55-year-old Lakhvi’s bail.
On April 9, Justice Muhammad Anwarul Haq of the Lahore High Court suspended the detention of Lakhvi under the Maintenance of Public Order (MPO) as the government failed to bring any ‘sensitive evidence’ against him.
The government managed to keep Lakhvi behind the bars under the MPO for nearly four months since the trial court granted him bail on December 19 last year.
On April 10, Lakhvi was released from the Adiala Jail in Rawalpindi after the Lahore High Court suspended his detention under a security act.
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 attacks in November, 2008 that left 166 people dead.
The Lahore High Court had directed the Punjab government to submit ‘sensitive reports’ on Lakhvi to see why Lakhvi had been detained despite suspension of his detention orders.
On March 14, the Okara district coordination officer had issued detention orders of Lakvhi. The petitioner challenged the detention orders, but the court directed him to approach the Punjab Home Department. On the direction of the court, the petitioner submitted a presentation to the Punjab home secretary, but he upheld the 30-day detention orders issued by the Okara DCO.
Lakvhi filed another petition in the Lahore High Court and submitted that he had filed a representation before home secretary against his detention, but he rejected his request. He said his detention was illegal as he had been freed by the IHC and a person could not be detained beyond 90 days without obtaining an order from the provincial review board comprising judges of the high court.
The Indian government expressed extreme disappointment after the Lahore High Court ordered immediate release of 26/11 suspect Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi.
Saying that the release of Lakhvi was extremely disappointing, the Indian government asked Pakistan to ensure terrorists like him do not come out of jail.
