FILE photo: Lashkar-e-Taiba leader and 26/11 accused Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi
Islamabad:
India has this morning reiterated its demand for immediate steps by Pakistan to reverse the bail granted to Zaki-ur-Rahman Lakhvi, the terrorist who masterminded the attacks in Mumbai in 2008 in which 166 people were killed.
Syed Akbaruddin, spokesperson for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said that Pakistan has been informed of "the sentiments across the spectrum of Indian society that that this will make a mockery of Pakistan's commitment to fight terror groups without hesitation and without making distinctions." He referred to the "glacial pace" of the trial of Lakhvi, 54, who was arrested in 2009 along with six other terrorists charged with helping to plot and execute India's worst-ever terror strike.
Lakhvi is being prosecuted by Pakistan's Federal Investigating Agency or FIA, which opposed his bail unsuccessfully in court yesterday. The Pakistan government has confirmed it will appeal against the verdict in the Supreme Court. For now, Lakhvi remains in custody under a special legal provision called the Maintenance of Public Order. The bail order came as Pakistan was plunged in mourning for nearly 130 children killed by the Taliban in a Peshawar school, leading Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif to vow a crack-down on terror groups.
While granting bail to Lakhvi, a court in Islamabad said the prosecution has been unable to provide evidence against him. Home Minister Rajnath Singh and others point out that India has furnished material that includes voice samples of Lakhvi's phone instructions to the ten terrorists who sailed into Mumbai in 2008 on how to strike the city's biggest landmarks. Ajmal Kasab, the lone terrorist to have been caught alive after the siege, later told Indian investigators that Lakhvi was the mastermind of the attacks, along with Hafiz Saeed, the founder of the Lashkar-e-Taiba, the terror group banned by Pakistan but tacitly supported by its army.
Saeed holds rallies often in Pakistan, despite a 10 million dollar bounty on his head announced in 2012 by the US.
Syed Akbaruddin, spokesperson for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said that Pakistan has been informed of "the sentiments across the spectrum of Indian society that that this will make a mockery of Pakistan's commitment to fight terror groups without hesitation and without making distinctions." He referred to the "glacial pace" of the trial of Lakhvi, 54, who was arrested in 2009 along with six other terrorists charged with helping to plot and execute India's worst-ever terror strike.
Lakhvi is being prosecuted by Pakistan's Federal Investigating Agency or FIA, which opposed his bail unsuccessfully in court yesterday. The Pakistan government has confirmed it will appeal against the verdict in the Supreme Court. For now, Lakhvi remains in custody under a special legal provision called the Maintenance of Public Order. The bail order came as Pakistan was plunged in mourning for nearly 130 children killed by the Taliban in a Peshawar school, leading Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif to vow a crack-down on terror groups.
While granting bail to Lakhvi, a court in Islamabad said the prosecution has been unable to provide evidence against him. Home Minister Rajnath Singh and others point out that India has furnished material that includes voice samples of Lakhvi's phone instructions to the ten terrorists who sailed into Mumbai in 2008 on how to strike the city's biggest landmarks. Ajmal Kasab, the lone terrorist to have been caught alive after the siege, later told Indian investigators that Lakhvi was the mastermind of the attacks, along with Hafiz Saeed, the founder of the Lashkar-e-Taiba, the terror group banned by Pakistan but tacitly supported by its army.
Saeed holds rallies often in Pakistan, despite a 10 million dollar bounty on his head announced in 2012 by the US.
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