India’s continued pressure on Pakistan to keep 26/11 plotter Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi behind the bars, seems to be working well as the Federal Investigation Agency in Islamabad on Tuesday challenged the decision to grant him bail.
55-year-old Lakhvi is currently in detention in Pakistan under a public security order.
The Federal Investigation Agency (FIA)’s challenge to Lakhvi’s bail comes just few days after the mastermind of 2008 Mumbai terror attacks was detained for 30 more days under a public security order before he could be released following a court directive.
The move by the FIA comes on a day when there were reports of US having shared “credible evidence” with Pakistan on Lakhvi’s involvement in the 2008 Mumbai attack, a senior official has said.
The detailed information shared by the US on individuals related to the Mumbai terrorist attack is based on the interrogation by David Headley, who is currently serving a jail sentence for his involvement in the attack, and the information gained from him.
Various security agencies and intelligence wings of the United States have done their own investigation with regard to the Mumbai terrorist attack.
The information comes after the US last week said there is a strong counter-terrorism cooperation with Pakistan and urged Islamabad to follow through on its commitment on bringing to justice the 26/11 perpetrators.
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, including six Americans, dead. The trial has been underway in Pakistan since 2009.
The trial court (Anti-Terrorism Cout, Islamabad) in the Mumbai attack case had granted bail to Lakhvi on December 18, last year but he was detained the next day under the MPO.
However, the IHC suspended Lakhvi’s detention on “weak legal ground”.
Just before he was to be released from Adiala Jail, Rawalpindi, Lakhvi was arrested on charges of kidnapping an Afghan national in 2009. He later got bail in the kidnapping case.
The government also challenged the IHC’s order in the Supreme Court which suspended the directive. Lakhvi again challenged his detention and got relief from the court last week, only to be detained again on Saturday.
