Punjab government in Pakistan challenged the Lahore High Court’s decision to suspend the detention and release LeT operations commander and 26/11 Mumbai attack mastermind Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi in the Supreme Court. On tuesday, the government said that Lakhvi’s release has created problems for it.
The Punjab government in its petition pleaded the apex court that the earlier order by the Lahore High Court had suspended the detention of Lakhvi under Maintenance of Public Ordinance despite seeing “sensitive documents” against him.
“Besides, there are chances that the investigation into Mumbai attack case may also be affected because of the release of Lakhvi,” the government argued in the petition.
The office of the Supreme Court is yet to fix the date of the final hearing. Lahore High Court Justice Muhammad Anwarul Haq on April 9 had suspended Lakhvi’s detention. The judge said that the “sensitive documents” produced by the government against Lakhvi were not upto his satisfaction.
The judge observed that “the reasons cited by the government for the petitioner’s detention were not enough”.
On April 10, Lakhvi was released from Adiala Jail in Rawalpindi after about six years of his arrest in the Mumbai attack case. The government managed to keep him behind the bars under the security act for nearly four months since the trial court granted him bail on December 14, 2014.
Pakistan faced strong criticism from India over the release of Lakhvi. India questioned Pakistan’s commitment to fight against terrorism.
Lakhvi and six others have been charged with planning and executing the 2008 Mumbai attack that killed 166 people and wounding over 300.
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