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Lahore: The mastermind of the 26/11 attacks, Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi, has been released from a jail in Pakistan, drawing immediate condemnation from India. “This is a serious setback, it’s deeply disappointing,” said Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh.
Lakhvi was first granted bail in December, but was kept in prison by the government under a public security act after a scathing reaction from India. Prime Minister Narendra Modi had said the prospect of Lakhvi walking free was “a shock to all those who believe in humanity”.
The government slapped Lakhvi with a series of detention orders but judges repeatedly cancelled them. “Lakhvi has been released and he is out of the jail now,” his lawyer, Malik Nasir Abbas, told news agency Reuters. “I don’t know where he will go now.”
Lakhvi, the 55-year-old military chief of the terror group Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) was arrested in Pakistan in 2009, months after 166 people were killed by 10 gunmen who attacked the city for three days.
Yesterday, a court said that government lawyers had failed to provide evidence to justify Lakhvi’s detention, paving the way for his release.
Lakhvi and six other suspects have been charged in Pakistan for planning and executing the Mumbai attacks, but their cases have made virtually no progress in more than five years, inciting repeated protests from India.
Delhi accuses Islamabad of prevaricating over the trials, and says it has submitted enough evidence to prove that Lakhvi is responsible for its worst-ever terror attack.
