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Pakistani Court Releases Militant Leader Tied to Mumbai Attacks on Bail Pakistani Court Releases Militant Leader Tied to Mumbai Attacks on Bail
(about 7 hours later)
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — In a move likely to further strain relations with India, a Pakistani court on Friday released on bail Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi, a militant commander accused of orchestrating the 2008 attacks in Mumbai that killed more than 160 people. ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — In a move that drew furious condemnation from India, a Pakistani high court released on bail on Friday a militant commander accused of orchestrating the 2008 attacks in Mumbai that killed more than 160 people.
Mr. Lakhvi and six other members of the Lashkar-e-Taiba militant group, which carried out the attack, have been on trial at the high-security Adiala jail in Rawalpindi since 2009. The commander, Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi, and six other members of the Lashkar-e-Taiba militant group have been on trial since 2009 at a high-security jail in Rawalpindi, just south of Islamabad, on charges of participating in the Mumbai operation.
The trial has been conducted in secret and been subject to halting progress, often giving the appearance of being influenced by the vagaries of wider tensions between Pakistan and India. But the trial has been conducted largely in secrecy, and its halting pace has given rise to speculation that its progress is being influenced by the vagaries of wider tensions between Pakistan and India.
A court ruling in December that Mr. Lakhvi should be released on bail was opposed by the government led by Nawaz Sharif, the prime minister, which employed various legal maneuvers to keep him in detention. Those tensions have been particularly high since last spring and summer, when Narendra Modi, a right-wing Hindu leader, became prime minister of India and there was a marked escalation in violent clashes between the two countries’ troops near the Line of Control in the disputed region of Kashmir.
But those efforts collapsed on Thursday when a Pakistani high court ordered Mr. Lakhvi’s immediate release on bail. Mr. Modi protested loudly in December when a Pakistani court ruled that Mr. Lakhvi should be released on bail, even though the Pakistani government, led by Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, managed to prevent his release at the time by invoking a colonial-era public order act.
It was not clear where the militant leader went after he walked free from Adiala jail around 1 p.m. on Friday. But those efforts collapsed on Thursday when the high court ordered Mr. Lakhvi’s immediate release on bail, saying there was no reason to hold him in jail and provoking a swift response from Indian officials.
“He is free now and in a secure place,” a senior official with Jamaat-ud-Dawa, Lashkar-e-Taiba’s charity wing, told Agence France-Presse. Mr. Lakhvi’s release was “a most negative development insofar as bilateral ties are concerned,” Syed Akbaruddin, a spokesman for India’s ministry of external affairs, told reporters in New Delhi. India’s high commissioner to Pakistan contacted the Pakistani authorities to register his “strong concerns,” Mr. Akbaruddin added.
The six other suspects remain under detention in the Adiala jail. “He underlined that this has reinforced the perception that Pakistan has a dual policy on dealing with terrorists, and those who have carried out attacks or are posing a threat to India are being dealt with differently,” Mr. Akbaruddin said.
India has openly accused Mr. Lakhvi, widely considered to be the operational head of Lashkar-e-Taiba, of coordinating the November 2008 Mumbai attacks by phone from a base inside Pakistan. Tasnim Aslam, a spokeswoman for Pakistan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, told reporters that it would “not be proper to cast aspersions on Pakistan’s commitment to countering terrorism” when the country is pressing the fight against Taliban militants inside its own borders.
The trial has become a point of contention in relations with India, which has frequently protested its slow progress. Pakistani officials say the evidence presented by India is too weak to stand up in court. Ms. Aslam blamed an “inordinate delay” in Indian cooperation with the Mumbai trial for weakening the prosecution’s case.
On Thursday, in response to a question on the court order at a news briefing, the spokesman of the Ministry of External Affairs in India said that the country’s “concerns on this issue have been made known to the government of Pakistan in the past.” Pakistani analysts said it was not clear whether the military or other elements of the security apparatus had influenced the court’s decision on Thursday. What seemed more certain, several said, was that the military did not wish to see Mr. Lakhvi or his group aggressively prosecuted.
“The fact is that known terrorists not being effectively prosecuted constitutes a real security threat for India and the world,” said Syed Akbaruddin, the spokesman. “This also erodes the value of assurances repeatedly conveyed to us with regard to cross-border terrorism.” “His release has been inevitable for a while now,” said Cyril Almeida, an editor at the newspaper Dawn. “The state is simply not interested in pursuing the Mumbai-related trials.”
Relations between the two countries have deteriorated since Prime Minister Narendra Modi, a conservative Hindu, took office last year. Along the disputed border, Pakistani and Indian troops have engaged in some of the deadliest artillery exchanges in years, killing dozens of people, many of them civilians. It was not immediately clear where Mr. Lakhvi went after he walked free from the Adiala jail around 1 p.m. on Friday.
Mr. Modi was openly critical when a Pakistan court first granted Mr. Lahkvi bail in December, although the authorities prevented his immediate release by invoking a colonial-era public order law. Mr. Lakhvi’s lawyer, Raja Rizwan Abbasi, said that he was probably staying with his family. “Any further detention order would be illegal and in contempt of court,” he said.
Lashkar has a long and close association with the military’s Inter-Services Intelligence spy agency, which views the group as a useful covert tool in its decades-old rivalry with India. Its charity wing, Jamaat-ud-Dawa, has its headquarters in the eastern city of Lahore, where its leader, Hafiz Muhammad Saeed, lives openly under police protection. The six other suspects remained in the Adiala jail.
Mr. Saeed moves about Pakistan freely, making speeches, fund-raising and appearing on television, in spite of a $10 million United States government reward offered for information leading to his prosecution. India says that Mr. Lakhvi, widely considered to be the operational head of Lashkar-e-Taiba, coordinated the November 2008 Mumbai attacks by phone from a base in Pakistan. He was arrested the next month.
In the past year, Jamaat-ud-Dawa has expanded its charitable operations in the southern province of Sindh, which was previously known as a center of religious moderation, raising fears about the failure of the country’s civilian and military leaders to check the spread of extremism. In December 2014, a Pakistani Taliban assault on an army-run school in Peshawar killed 150 people, most of them children, and led to a concerted military crackdown on certain militant groups.
While the military has cracked down hard on the Pakistani Taliban since gunmen killed 150 people, mostly children, at a school in Peshawar in December, it has avoided militant groups, such as Lashkar, that share the military’s strategic goals in relation to India. Army special forces troops intensified operations in the country’s tribal belt, and Mr. Sharif’s government lifted a moratorium on executions of militant prisoners. Parliament authorized the army to try those prisoners in special courts, which have sweeping powers and recently heard their first cases.
On Thursday, Mr. Saeed led a rally in the capital, Islamabad, at which he urged Mr. Sharif’s government to ally with Saudi Arabia in attacking Houthi rebels in Yemen. But the crackdown has largely avoided groups, like Lashkar-e-Taiba, that share the military’s stance toward India.
Lashkar fighters have infiltrated Indian-controlled Kashmir and attacked Indian diplomatic targets in Afghanistan, moves that are widely believed to have been supported by Pakistani intelligence.
Although Lashkar was officially banned in 2002, it continues to operate unofficially through Jamaat ud-Dawa, its charity wing, which is based in the eastern city of Lahore but has branches across the country.
The charity’s leader, Hafiz Muhammad Saeed, lives in a Lahore suburb with police protection, free to move about the country making speeches, fund-raising and appearing on television. His supporters have openly mocked a $10 million United States government reward offered for information leading to his prosecution.
In his latest public appearance, on Thursday, Mr. Saeed led a rally in Islamabad, the capital, at which he urged Mr. Sharif’s government to ally with Saudi Arabia in attacking Houthi rebels in Yemen.
Lashkar’s fighters follow the Ahle Hadith school of Islam, which is closely related to the Wahhabism of Saudi Arabia and has helped the group raise money in the Persian Gulf countries. In the past year, its charity wing has expanded its operations to southern Pakistan, raising fears about the government’s failure to check the spread of extremism.
“For India, the signal is clear,” said Mr. Almeida, the newspaper editor. “Kashmir is central to everything, and Pakistan won’t let India forget that, even if Prime Minister Modi doesn’t want to talk to us.”