26/11 case: Lakhvi summoned to appear in next hearing

In this january 1, 2015 photo, Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi, the main suspect of the 208 Mumbai terror attacks, raises his fist after his court appearance in Islamabad.

LeT operations commander Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi, the 2008 Mumbai terror attack mastermind, was on Tuesday summoned by a Pakistani court to appear before it in the next hearing on the government’s appeal against his bail in the 26/11 case.

A two-member bench of the Islamabad High Court headed by Justice Shaukat Siddiqui on Tuesday admitted the government’s plea against the Anti-Terrorism Court’s decision to grant bail to Lakhvi.

“The court summoned Lakhvi for arguments in the case on next hearing and issued a notice to him in this regard,” prosecution chief Chaudhry Azhar told PTI after the hearing.

Mr. Azhar, a special prosecutor of the Federal Investigation Agency, said the court office would fix the next date of hearing.

The prosecution informed the court in its petition that an Anti-Terrorism Court ignored testimony in the 26/11 case while granting bail to Lakhvi.

On December 18, 2014, the ATC granted bail to Lakhvi, who was involved in planning, financing and executing the Mumbai terror attacks in November 2008.

He was again detained a day after under the Maintenance of Public Order law.

However, Islamabad High Court judge Noorul Haq Qureshi suspended Lakhvi’s detention under MPO, evoking a strong reaction from India.

Just before he was to be released, Lakhvi was arrested on charges of kidnapping Afghan national Muhammad Anwar Khan.

The police kept him at the Shalimar Police station in Islamabad for a two-day physical remand before a magistrate sent him back to Adiala Jail on Monday for a 14-day judicial custody.

Lakhvi has been detained at Adiala Jail for the past five years.

He will be produced before the magistrate on January 15.

Lakhvi and six others — 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 in November, 2008 that left 166 people dead.

The government has already challenged the IHC’s order to suspend Lakhvi detention in the Supreme Court.

On the other hand, Lakhvi has also challenged his detention in the abduction case in the IHC.

Lakhvi was arrested in December 2008 and was indicted along with the six others on November 25, 2009 in connection with the case. The trial has been underway since 2009.

Top developments Pakistan challenges Lakhvi’s bail > Read here Lakhvi sent to judicial custody in abduction case > Read here Lakhvi stays imprisoned; arrested in abduction case > Read here Lakhvi's detention orders were suspended by an Islamabad Court on December 29, 2014 > Read here Previously bail was granted to the 26/11 mastermind, which drew a lot of flak from the Indian government > Read here "The release of the Mumbai terror attack handler will make a mockery of Pakistan’s commitment to fight terror groups", India said to Pakistan while voicing its strong condemnation of his release. > Read here In an unusual collaborative effort, the government and the opposition drafted a joint resolution on the granting of bail to Lakhvi in full view in the Lok Sabha. > Read here Pakistan govt. failed to file a plea challenging the bail to the LeT operations commander even as he filed a petition in the Islamabad High Court against a court’s decision to make a judicial panel’s record a part of evidence in the 26/11 case. > Read here