ISLAMABAD: The Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Monday accepted Additional Attorney General Afnan Karim Kundi’s application for an in-camera hearing to submit records of the case pertaining to the detention of alleged mastermind of the 2008 Mumbai attacks Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi.
Earlier, two different petitions had been submitted by the federal government and the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) in the Supreme Court which the apex court had then referred to the IHC.
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The SC while referring the matter to the IHC, had said that it should review its Dec 30 decision to grant conditional release to Lakhvi. Meanwhile, the FIA’s petition had challenged the Dec 18 decision of an anti-terrorism court in Islamabad, which had granted bail to Lakhvi in the Mumbai attacks case.
Lakhvi was granted post-arrest bail by the ATC on Dec 18. However, the federal government had extended his detention in the Adiala Jail under the Maintenance of Public Order ordinance.
IHC judge Justice Noorul Haq Qureshi presided over the case’s hearing today.
During the hearing, Kundi, on behalf of AG Salman Butt, requested the court that he should be permitted to submit the case’s records in an in-camera hearing.
However, Lakhvi’s counsel Advocate Abdul Rauf contended that the hearing should be conducted openly.
Accepting Butt’s request, the court directed the AAG to appear before it tomorrow, complete with the case’s records, and also directed the Interior Ministry to submit its response within a week’s time.
The matter was subsequently adjourned until tomorrow.
Lakhvi has been behind bars since Feb 19, 2009 after an FIR was registered with the FIA’s Special Investigation Unit (SIU) for allegedly training terrorists and facilitating the Mumbai attacks on Nov 26, 2008, in which 166 people were killed.
