IHC orders release of Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi

ISLAMABAD: The Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Friday cancelled a detention order against Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi — the alleged mastermind of 2008 Mumbai attacks — paving the way for his release.
New Delhi created an unnecessary hype soon after the court’s decision and summoned Pakistan’s High Commissioner to India Abdul Basit to lodge a strong protest against the release orders.
Justice Noorul Haq N Qureshi ordered that the petitioner be released immediately if he was not required in any other case.Lakhvi is the operational commander of Lashkar-e-Taiba (LT) and the alleged mastermind of November 26, 2008 Mumbai attacks.
An Anti-Terrorism Court (ATC) granted post-arrest bail to Lakhvi against Rs one million sureties on December 18, 2014.Later, the federal government detained him under the Section 3 of Maintenance of Public Order (MPO), which was extended on January 18 and February 18 to 30 days each.
Lakhvi had challenged his detention orders, making the Federation of Pakistan as respondent through the Ministry of Interior and Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT) administration.Justice Qureshi noted that the respondent’s apprehensions about the release of the petitioner were not substantive.
Suspending Lakhvi’s first detention order of Dec. 18, 2014, the court ordered his release, but Golra Police Station registered an FIR against him December 29 for kidnapping a person.The IHC bench noted that it could be inferred that the FIR was registered to detain the petitioner.
“The allegations leveled have neither been substantiated by any material as required by the court nor the same have been appended to the reply submitted by the respondents,” said Justice Qureshi in the judgment.
“Under the garb of provision provided by Section 3 of Maintenance of Public Ordinance, 1960, the respondents avoided producing any material before this court. Severally, this court asked the respondents to produce the said material, but the learned advocate general Islamabad as well as the learned additional attorney general with lame excuses submitted that they intend to produce the said record before the Review Board.”
“In my humble view, on the basis of oral assertions, the detention of the present petitioner cannot be declared justifiable. Besides above, there is no other material on the basis of which it could be ascertained that the detention of the petitioner is justified.
Abdul Basit informed India that the trial of Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi was continuing and the judicial process should be allowed to take its course.“He may have been granted bail but as you know the trial continues; we are all working to complete the trial. Let the judicial process take its course,” Basit was quoted by the Indian media.
“India today conveyed its outrage to Pakistan at the release of Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi, one of the key accused in the Mumbai terror attacks.This goes against Pakistan’s professed commitment to combat terrorism, including its recently stated policy of not differentiating amongst terrorists.
If such a person, who is also a designated international terrorist by the United Nations, is released it will pose a threat that cannot be ignored, “the Indian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Syed Akbaruddin tweeted.
India’s interference in Pakistan’s judicial process has raised eyebrows, especially when its minister of state for home affairs was quoted by The Hindu as saying, “It’s Pakistan’s responsibility to take all legal measures to ensure that he doesn’t come out of jail.’
“The overwhelming evidence against Lakhvi has not been presented properly before court by Pakistani agencies,” said Kiren Rijiju, Minister of State for Home Affairs and added, “There are no good terrorists or bad terrorists.”There was no word from the Foreign Office here over the summoning of their high commissioner.
Earlier Lakhvi’s counsel Raja Rizwan Abbasi Advocate contended before the court that the detention of his client for three months was illegal despite the fact that an Anti-Terrorism Court (ATC) of Islamabad had granted him bail.On the other hand, Advocate General for Islamabad Mian Abdur Rauf requested the court to dismiss the application of the accused being non-maintainable.