NEW DELHI: India has summoned Pakistani High Commissioner Abdul Basit to protest against a court order on Monday that could allow 26/11 alleged mastermind Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi to leave jail.
Lakhvi was granted bail on December 18, drawing a furious response from India. Prime Minister Narendra Modi condemned the move. Pakistan had assured India that it would appeal against Lakhvi’s bail in the Supreme Court, but that has yet to happen. The Islamabad High Court Monday cancelled government orders to keep Lakhvi in prison for another three months under a special provision called the Maintenance of Public Order. “The Islamabad High Court order on Lakhvi calls into question Pakistan’s entire approach to terror,” said government sources in New Delhi.
Lakhvi has since 2009 been in a jail in Rawalpindi. The court that granted him bail said that it did not have evidence to prove Lakhvi’s involvement in the attack in India, in which 166 people were killed in Mumbai in 2008. Lakhvi is one of seven people on trial in Pakistan for the siege of Mumbai, but the trial has produced no results so far. It has been closed to the media.
