India has strongly criticised the bail granted to 26/11 terror attack mastermind Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi, and called on the Pakistan government to appeal in a higher court or “take steps to reverse the decision.”
The development was “unfortunate,” said Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh adding, “The Pakistani government may have been lax, or made a mistake, in the case, but India has provided Pakistan all evidence. Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif said he would not rest till every terrorist was finished. I hope that the Pakistani government will appeal in a higher court, so that the bail is cancelled.”
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External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Syed Akbaruddin said the bail granted to Lakhvi would “serve as a reassurance to terrorists. We call upon the government of Pakistan to take steps to reverse this decision.” Referring to the Peshawar school massacre and Mr. Sharif’s remarks that there would be “no good Taliban or bad Taliban,” Mr. Akbaruddin said: “Given the scale of the tragedy they have suffered, it is incumbent on Pakistan to realise that there can be no selective approach towards terrorism.”
The government reaction came after consultations with the Indian High Commission in Islamabad on the proceedings in the anti-terrorism court inside the Adiala jail in Rawalpindi. Officials said they “were waiting and watching to see what Pakistan’s next step will be” on filing appeals as well as how the prosecution would deal with the bail applications filed by the other accused in the case. Sources pointed out that it was also significant that Lakhvi’s bail had come a day after Mr. Sharif lifted the 2008 moratorium on executions.
Lakhvi, who was the operations commander of the Lashkar-e-Taiba, was charged along with six others in 2009 in the Mumbai attack case. Ajmal Kasab, executed in India, and David Coleman Headley, convicted in the U.S. for planning the attacks, had identified Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi as the operations mastermind for the 26/11 terror attack on Mumbai in which 166 people were killed.
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