IHC issues release orders of Zaki ur Rehman Lakhvi

Justice Noor-ul-Haq Qureshi, hearing the plea against detention of Zaki ur Rehman Lakhvi today, declared his imprisonment null and void. He also issued interim orders for Lakhvi’s release.

Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi, who is accused of the terror siege in India’s commercial capital, was granted bail on December 18 by an Anti-Terror Court (ATC) but authorities later detained him under a public order law, which in turn was then suspended by the Islamabad High Court on December 29.

The Mumbai attacks left 166 people dead and were blamed on banned Pakistani militant group Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT). India has long seethed at Pakistan’s failure either to hand over or prosecute those accused of planning and organising the violence.

Lakhvi and six other suspects have been charged in Pakistan but their cases have made virtually no progress in more than five years.