26/11 Mastermind Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi Must be Freed From Jail, Says Court in Pakistan

Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi, the mastermind of the Mumbai terror attacks, must be released from prison immediately, a court in Pakistan said on Thursday.

The Lahore High Court declared Lakhvi's detention illegal.

The Punjab government last month detained Lakhvi before he could be released from jail after a court ordered his release.

Lakhvi is accused of planning the terror siege in Mumbai that left 166 dead in 2008.

He was granted bail by an anti-terror court in December, which infuriated New Delhi. Amid outrage over the possible release of the terror plotter, Pakistan quickly slapped him with a detention order under the "Maintenance of Public Order" law.

The Islamabad High Court suspended that order, but the Supreme Court restored it in January.

Last month, the high court again set aside the detention order, saying government lawyers had failed to provide evidence to justify Lakhvi's detention.

India says it has provided enough proof in about a dozen dossiers submitted to Pakistan. The evidence it has provided includes voice samples and witness statements on his role in the 26/11 attacks.

Throughout the four-month back and forth over Lakhvi's detention, he has never been let out of Adiyala Prison in Rawalpindi.

The original bail order in December, days after at attack on a school in Peshawar in which over 130 children were killed, prompted an angry response from India. Prime Minister Narendra Modi said it came as "a shock to all those who believe in humanity".

India has said that it is up to the Pakistan government to ensure that Lakhvi stays in jail.

Lakhvi and six other suspects have been charged in Pakistan but their cases have made virtually no progress in more than five years.