ISLAMABAD Pakistani police have rearrested the main suspect in the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks, officials said on Tuesday, quashing expectations that he might soon be freed.
Zaki-ur-Rahman Lakhvi is one of seven suspects being tried by Pakistan in connection with the attacks, which killed 166 people and seriously damaged relations between longtime rivals Pakistan and India.
After a judge on December 18 granted him bail there had been concerns that he would be freed, possibly as early as Tuesday. But on Tuesday morning, police arrested him on another case, his lawyer Rizwan Abbasi said.
Lakhvi appeared in court in Islamabad amid tight security. He told an Associated Press reporter that he accepted whatever God intended for him.
Police inspector Mohammed Arshad told the court that someone had filed a complaint at a police station on the Islamabad outskirts saying that Lakhvi had abducted his brotherin- law to wage "jihad" six and a half years ago. The judge granted a police request for time to investigate the accusation, extending Lakhvi's detention for two days.
A lawyer for Lakhvi questioned why the complaint had only become known when it appeared that Lakhvi would be let go on bail. Rizwan Abbasi called it a tactic to "....deprive my client of the fundamental right of liberty."
The legal maneuverings on Tuesday stem from the decision on December 18 by the judge in an anti-terrorism court to grant him bail, citing a lack of evidence.
That announcement was extremely embarrassing to the government, which had vowed to crack down on militancy following the Peshawar school attack days earlier. It provoked a harsh condemnation from India, which has repeatedly said Pakistan is not doing enough in the case.
In the wake of the bail announcement Pakistani legal authorities tried various mechanisms to keep Lakhvi behind bars, but in a hearing on Monday, a judge said that there were no grounds to prolong the detention and that the only thing standing between him and freedom was posting bail.
Pakistani television reported that senior officials met late Monday at the Interior Ministry to discuss the case. Lakhvi was rearrested the following morning.
INDIAN PARTIES SEEK ACTION IN 26/11 TERROR ATTACK
ISLAMABAD/ NEW DELHI Indian political parties and foreign policy observers have expressed dissatisfaction with Pakistan authorities slapping an abduction case against Lakhvi and termed it an eyewash. They said he should be prosecuted in the Mumbai terror attack case. Lakhvi was detained late on Monday after he was booked in the abduction case, media reports said Tuesday.
He was produced in a court in Islamabad and the prosecutor sought seven days judicial custody, which was not acceded to by the judge who remanded Lakhvi to two days judicial custody, Geo TV reported.
India had on Monday summoned Pakistan High Commissioner Abdul Basit to convey its "strong concern" over lack of effective action in case and said there appeared no end to that country remaining a safe haven for terror groups despite its own recent tragedies. Rajiv Dogra, former ambassador and India's last consul general in Karachi, said that Lakhvi getting sent to two days judicial custody was no consolation to India.
"India had wanted justice to be done and sentencing to be formally given to an accused who is responsible for the Mumbai terror attack. Instead, Pakistan has played a trick by booking him in an entirely irrelevant case from India's point of view," said Dogra.He said that whether Lakhvi was given a sentence in the fresh case does not make much difference to India's concerns on 26/11.
"So, this is just an eyewash by Pakistan to cool down feelings in India temporarily and to carry on with business as usual," he said. Former Indian Indian high commissioner to Pakistan G Parthasarthy said that Lakhvi's remand in an abduction case was of "no matter to us" .
IANS
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