Pakistan apex court upholds Lakhvi’s detention order

Islamabad, January 7: The Supreme Court of Pakistan on Wednesday overturned the suspension of detention of Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi, the alleged mastermind of the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks. He will remain in jail, the court has ordered. The apex court has sent the case back to the Islamabad High Court (IHC) to hear the arguments of both parties without rushing through it.

The case will be heard again on January 12. The apex court declared the IHC’s order releasing Lakhvi from jail as void, and said he will remain in jail. Lakhvi was arrested in February 2009 and was indicted along with six others on November 25, 2009, for planning and helping to carry out the Mumbai terror attacks.

He was believed to be the operatiol chief of the Lashkar–e–Taiba (LeT), which has been accused by India of carrying out the attacks in Mumbai. The 2008 attacks, when ten Pakistani gunmen rampaged through Mumbai for three days, sent bilateral relations into deep freeze. India blamed the Pakistan–based militant group LeT for the attack and handed over intercepts to use as evidence in the Lakhvi case. One Pakistani terrorist, Ajmal Kasab, caught alive was tried and convicted of the attacks, and sentenced to death by a special court in Mumbai. He was executed on November 21, 2012. (IANS)