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Suspected mastermind of Mumbai attacks freed on bail in Pakistan Suspected mastermind of Mumbai terror attack released from Pakistan jail
(35 minutes later)
The man accused of being the mastermind of the 2008 Mumbai attacks in which 166 people were killed has been released on bail by a court in Pakistan, threatening to further strain ties between Islamabad and Delhi. The man accused of masterminding the devastating 2008 terror attack on the Indian city of Mumbai has walked free from a Pakistani jail after detention orders against him were dropped.
India’s prime minister, Narendra Modi, had condemned the prospect of bail for Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi, but on Friday the suspect’s lawyer told Reuters: “Lakhvi has been released and he is out of the jail. I don’t know where he will go now.” A security official confirmed the release. The decision of Lahore’s high court to release Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi, the alleged military chief of the Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) terror group, was described by as an “insult to the victims” of the terror attack that killed 166 people.
Reaction in India has so far been muted. “India wants talks with Pakistan but the present development is unfortunate and very disappointing,” home minister Rajnath Singh told reporters. Delhi remains frustrated by Pakistan’s seven-year failure to successfully prosecute any of those involved in sending a boatload of young suicide attackers to India’s financial capital.
The two countries have fought three major wars since gaining their independence from Britain in 1947. Relations appeared set to improve last year after newly elected Indian prime minister Narendra Modi invited his counterpart to his inauguration but deteriorated rapidly amid fierce exchanges of artillery fire and clashes along the disputed border between the two South Asian states. Rizwan Abbasi, the lawyer acting for Lakhvi, confirmed his client had been released from Adiala jail in Rawalpindi following the end of his “illegal detention”.
A spokesman for India’s home ministry said Lakhvi’s release was disappointing: “[It is] an insult to the victims of the 26/11 Mumbai attack. The global community should take serious note of Pakistan’s double-speak on terrorism,” the spokesman told Agence France-Presse. “Justice Anwar ul-Haq in his orders declared the detention unjustified and ordered an immediate release of Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi from the jail,” he said.
India’s external affairs ministry said before the release that its concern about Lakhvi had been made clear to Pakistan. “The fact is that known terrorists not being effectively prosecuted constitutes a real security threat for India and the world,” a spokesman said. “This also erodes the value of assurances repeatedly conveyed to us with regard to cross-border terrorism.” Pakistan’s government had battled to keep Lakhvi behind bars ever since he was granted bail by an anti-terrorism court in Islamabad on 18 December last year, just two days after a Taliban massacre of schoolchildren in Peshawar prompted the government to make grand promises to crack down on terrorist groups.
India blamed the Pakistan-based militant group Lashkar-e-Taiba for the Mumbai attacks. Ten gunmen infiltrated the city by boat and spent three days spraying bullets and throwing grenades near city landmarks. But the state could only use “maintenance of public order” legislation to hold him as prosecutors have failed to marshal a case against Lakhvi over the Mumbai attacks.
Indian investigators said Lakhvi was the Lashkar-e-Taiba military chief. He was arrested in Pakistan in 2009 in connection with the attack. A spokesman for India’s home ministry, who asked not to be named, criticised Lakhvi’s release, calling the court’s decision “an insult to the victims of the 26/11 Mumbai attack”.
Relations between India and Pakistan, which have fought three wars since independence in 1947, nosedived after the assault and have not fully recovered. A dispute over the Kashmir region periodically flares into violence. “The global community should take serious note of Pakistan’s double-speak on terrorism,” the spokesman added.
Lakhvi was granted bail by an anti-terrorism court in Islamabad on 18 December, two days after a militant attack on a high school in the city of Peshawar killed 132 children. The timing of the decision, while many were still in mourning for the Peshawar attack, forced the government to detain Lakhvi under “maintenance of public order” legislation. Abbasi said he would fight any other attempts by the government to keep Lakhvi locked up.
His lawyer told Reuters that his client has been granted bail because of insufficient evidence. “[For the] last four months we have fought for justice against the government decision to keep my client in illegal detention,” Abbasi said. “If this is something the government again wishes to do we are ready to knock the door of the courts once again.”
Reacting to the news, India’s home minister, Rajnath Singh, said: “India wants talks with Pakistan but the present development is unfortunate and very disappointing.”
The two countries have fought three major wars since gaining their independence from Britain in 1947.
Relations looked set to improve last year after the newly elected Indian prime minister Narendra Modi invited his counterpart to his inauguration, but they deteriorated rapidly amid fierce exchanges of artillery fire and clashes along the disputed border between the two South Asian states.
Earlier this week, in anticipation of the release, an Indian government spokesman said that “known terrorists not being effectively prosecuted constitutes a real security threat for India and the world”.
Lakhvi was originally arrested in December 2008 following the deadly three-day rampage by gunmen in Mumbai’s main train station, as well as a café and five-star hotels.
Lakhvi, known as “chacha Zaki” within LeT, is accused of personally directing the ten young attackers by phone from a safe house in the Pakistani port city of Karachi.
Despite phone-tap and witness evidence – including the confession of the sole surviving attacker – critics say a prosecution is unthinkable given the close relationship Pakistan’s military has had with LeT, a jihadist group established in the early 1990s as an off-the-books force to help Pakistan prise the contested region of Kashmir away from India.
Any prosecution, let alone extradition to India, could risk revealing any ongoing ties between Pakistan’s intelligence establishment and LeT.
Lakhvi is said to have had a relatively comfortable stay behind bars, enjoying perks including a television and access to a mobile phone, as well as being able to father a child.