[Int.] Lakhvi stays imprisoned; arrested in abduction case

Mumbai attack mastermind Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi was on Tuesday arrested just before his release following a Pakistani court’s suspension of his detention.

“Lakhvi has been arrested in another case,” an interior ministry spokesman told PTI.

Lakhvi was set to be freed from the Adaila Jail Rawalpindi Tuesday morning on the order of the Islamabad High Court.

“Lakhvi was then presented before a magistrate who remanded him in custody,” the official said.

The Islamabad High Court on Monday suspended the government’s Maintenance of Public Order (MPO) under which Lakhvi was being held under detention, paving the way for his release.

Foreign Secretary Sujatha Singh summoned Pakistan High Commissioner Basit in New Delhi and the Indian mission in Islamabad took up the issue with the Pakistan Foreign Office.

While suspending Lakhvi’s detention order, the court directed the Pakistan government to file a reply in this regard on January 15.

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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Source - The Hindu