Pakistan detains 26/11 planner Zaki-ur Rehman Lakhvi in fresh case

A day fter the Islamabad High Court suspended the notification for detention of Lashkar-e-Taiba commander and alleged November 2008 Mumbai attacks planner Zaki-ur Rehman Lakhvi, reports said that Pakistani authorities had detained him again in a new case.

"When my client was being released the Superintendent of Police was standing there and he arrested my client in some other case. I have no details of the other case in which he has been arrested," Rizwan Abbasi, Lakhvi's legal counsel, told CNN-IBN.

Abbasi said his client was being deprived of his fundamental rights because of international pressure and called the detention "very unfortunate".

Lakhvi was set to be freed from the Adaila Jail Rawalpindi this morning on the order of the Islamabad High Court after he submitted Rs 1 million surety bond, but just before that the jail superintendent received an order from the government regarding his arrest in another case.

"Lakhvi was then presented before a magistrate who remanded him in custody," an interior ministry spokesperson told PTI.

The fresh detention comes after the High Court suspended the notification for detention and India lodged a protest with the Pakistani government over it failing to take action after Lakhvi was granted bail. The Pakistan government's law officer had failed to turn up for the hearing on Lakhvi's detention in the Islamabad High Court.

Lakhvi is among seven Pakistani nationals accused of planning and abetting the brazen terror attack in Mumbai on 26 November, 2008 that left 166 people dead, including foreigners.

Lakhvi and six other accused - Abdul Wajid, Mazhar Iqbal, Hamad Amin Sadiq, Shahid Jameel Riaz, Jamil Ahmed and Younis Anjum - have been charged with planning and executing the Mumbai attacks. The trial has been underway since 2009.

He is facing the charges of imparting training and giving instructions to the 10 terrorists who carried out the attacks in India's financial capital, leaving 166 people dead.

The Islamabad Anti-Terrorism Court Judge Kausar Abbas Zaidi on 18 December had granted bail to Lakhvi citing lack of evidence against him. But before he could be released from jail, the government detained him for three more months under the Public Maintenance Order in Adiala Jail where the trial is being held.

The Pakistan government had even promised to file a plea challenging Lakhvi's bail but failed to do so as it could not get a copy of the anti-terrorism court's order. Lakhvi had even submitted an application on Wednesday with the Pakistan government seeking an end to his detention.

The bail given to Lakhvi had drawn sharp criticism from India. Prime Minister Narendra Modi had earlier said, "The grant of bail (to Lakhvi) after such a heinous incident is traumatising for every Indian."

Source http://m.firstpost.com/world/pakistan-detains-2611-planner-zaki-ur-rehman-lakhvi-in-fresh-case-2022223.html