RAWALPINDI - Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi, Jamaat-ud-Dawa top gun and one of the main accused in the 2008 Mumbai attacks case, was released from Adiala Jail on Friday noon.
The accused furnished surety bonds of Rs 2 million to the jail authorities.
According to official sources, Adiala Jail Superintendent Malik Mushtaq Awan received orders of the LHC on April 9, verified them and finally released him at 1pm from the jail.
A large number of JuD workers, present outside the jail, accorded a rosy welcome to their leader.
Later, Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi was escorted to some unknown location amid tight security.
Some locals told The Nation that since morning security had been tightened around the jail.
Haji Yaseen, a local trader at Kalya, said he noted movement of many people with long beards and wearing shalwar kameez, who might be there for guarding Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi.
Similarly, police and personnel of other law-enforcement agencies had also been deployed outside the jail and on the road to avoid any mishap.
JuD spokesman Muhammad Asif and Yahya Mujahid, when contacted for their comments on the release of Zaki, declined to speak on the issue.
Lakhvi was set free after the Lahore High Court (LHC) dismissed his detention orders and ordered the jail authorities to end detention of the JuD provincial chief.
The court gave this verdict on plea of the lawyers of Lakhvi who challenged the detention orders of DCO Lahore he issued on March 14.
The Punjab government had also told the court that Zaki ur Rehmsan Lakhvi was being detained in the light of reports of intelligence agencies that he might be attacked.
However, the LHC rejected the plea and released Lakhvi.
An anti-terrorism court indicted Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi along with seven others accused of planning and carrying out an armed attack on a hotel in Mumbai in 2008 claiming 166 lives.
The other accused facing trial in Adiala Jail in the Mumbai attack case included Shahid Jamil Riaz, Hammad Amin Sadiq, Younas Anjum, Jamil Ahmed, Mazhar Iqbal and Abdul Majid.
Agencies add: India slammed the release as an insult to the victims of the three-day onslaught on its financial capital, blamed on the banned Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT).
Jamaat-ud-Dawa (JuD) confirmed Lakhvi’s release.
“Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi has been released from jail.
He is free now and in a secure place,” a senior JuD official said.
“We can’t say exactly where he is at the moment for security reasons.
”
The release comes after nearly four months of wrangling over Lakhvi’s detention, after a judge granted him bail in December, sparking an angry response from New Delhi.
The government slapped Lakhvi with a series of detention orders, but judges repeatedly cancelled them.
On Thursday the Lahore High Court ordered his release against Rs 2 million surety bond.
India has long seethed at Pakistan’s failure either to hand over or prosecute those accused of planning and carrying out the violence.
A spokesman for India’s home ministry, who asked not to be named, slammed Lakhvi’s release.
“This is a very disappointing announcement, an insult to the victims of the 26/11 Mumbai attack.
The global community should take serious note of Pakistan’s doublespeak on terrorism,” the spokesman said.
Lakhvi and six other suspects have been charged in Pakistan, but their cases have made virtually no progress in more than five years.
Delhi has long accused Islamabad of prevaricating over the trials, while Pakistan has alleged that India failed to give it crucial evidence.
Lakhvi’s initial bail order in December prompted an angry response from Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi who said, “It came as a shock to all those who believe in humanity”.
The horror of the Mumbai carnage played out on live television around the world as commandos battled the heavily armed gunmen who arrived by sea on the evening of November 26, 2008.
It took the authorities three days to regain full control of the city and New Delhi has long said there is evidence that official agencies in Pakistan were involved in plotting the attack.
Islamabad denies the charge.
No comments:
Post a Comment