Driving Naari Programme launched in Chandigarh
New Delhi, Reacting sharply to the Lahore High Court’s decision to suspend the detention of the 2008 Mumbai attacks mastermind Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi, India today said the development “eroded the value of assurances conveyed by Islamabad to New Delhi in regard to cross- border terrorism”.
An External Affairs Ministry spokesperson said: “Our concerns on this issue have been made known to the Government of Pakistan in the past. These shall be reiterated. The fact is that known terrorists not being effectively prosecuted constitutes a real security threat for India and the world. This also erodes the value of assurances repeatedly conveyed to us with regard to cross border terrorism”.
Lakhvi, 55, of the Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT), a banned terror outfit, had been detained under the Maintenance of Public Order in Pakistan. Lakhvi’s associates Tahawwur Hussain Rana and David Coleman Headley, alias Daood Gilani, lodged in a Chicago prison, had testified in a US court about Lakhvi and his role in overall planning of the attacks, making him the most important man in the attacks. The US has shared the evidence with Pakistan.
A US court in the state of Illinois has charged Rana and Headley and laid bare the nexus of the LeT in attacking India. “Headley became acquainted with a senior member of Lashkar, Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi (“Zaki”), who was responsible for Lashkar’s military operations” the US court had ruled in 2011.
