Islamabad: The Pakistan government today filed a reply in the high court here providing details of charges related to the detention of 2008 Mumbai attack mastermind Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi under a public security act.
The government gave details of the charges Lakhvi, 54, is facing in the Mumbai attack case, his alleged involvement in the abduction of an Afghan national, and the judgement of the Supreme Court in his detention case.
Judge Noorul Haq Qureshi of the Islamabad High Court adjourned the hearing till March 10. In the last hearing on Monday, the court had barred the government from registering any other case against Lakhvi without its prior permission, after his lawyer argued that “false” cases might be slapped against his client to keep him in jail.
Lakhvi's counsel Raja Rizwan Abbasi had said in court that the government was planning to register another case against his client like it did when he was granted bail in the Mumbai attack case.
He argued that the government had earlier filed a false case of abduction of an Afghan national, Anwer Khan, against Lakhvi but it could not prove anything against him in court. Lakhvi last month had challenged his ‘fresh' detention under the Maintenance of Public Order (MPO) act. In December, 2014, the anti-terrorism trial court here granted bail to Lakhvi but he was detained the next day under the MPO. However, the Islamabad high court suspended Lakhvi's detention on “weak legal ground”.
Pakistan had faced an angry reaction from India following Lakhvi's bail.Just before he was to be released from Adiala Jail in Rawalpindi, Lakhvi was again arrested on charges of kidnapping Khan in 2009.
The Supreme Court also set aside the high court's order on the government's plea. Subsequently, the government extended his detention for another 30 days till the second week of April.
Lakhvi, 54, 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 attack in November, 2008 that killed 166 people in India's financial hub.
