Punjab home deptt orders detention of Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi

Yesterday, Islamabad High Court (IHC) issuing release orders of Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi had declared his detention unlawful.

Following the IHC orders, Indian Foreign Ministry summoned Pakistan High Commissioner Abdul Basit to protest against the court orders.

Pakistan Foreign Office, on the other hand, expressed concern with India for summoning Pakistan’s High Commissioner to Ministry of External Affairs and unnecessarily creating media hype on the release of Zakiur Rahman Lakhvi by the court.

Foreign Office in Islamabad summoned Indian Deputy High Commissioner and handed over a protest note to him.

The official said instead of creating hype and projecting the case in the media out of proportion, India should have used diplomatic channels to express concern as per the diplomatic norms.

Charges against Zaki-ur-Rehman

Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi, who is accused of the terror siege in India’s commercial capital Mumbai, was granted bail on December 18 by an Anti-Terror Court (ATC) but authorities later detained him under a public order law, which was 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 to hand over or prosecute the accused  planning and organizing terrorist attacks.

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