Islamabad: Prosecution in the 2008 Mumbai attack today failed to produce for the third consecutive time the record of the case involving seven suspects, including mastermind Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi, forcing Pakistan's new anti-terrorism court to adjourn the hearing till February 18.
“The Mumbai case record is still lying with the Islamabad High Court (IHC) in connection with the Lakhvi's bail case.When the high court record returns the record, it will be produced before the trial court,” Prosecution Chief Chaudhry Azhar told PTI after the hearing.
The hearing was adjourned till February 18 without any proceedings.
The government transferred the 26/11 case from Anti-Terrorism Court (I) to the recently-established ATC (II), Islamabad on January 14 without giving any reason. The case was subsequently transferred from the court of Kausar Abbas Zaidi to that of Sohail Akbar. The government had challenged Lakhvi's bail in Islamabad High Court over a month ago.
On January 6, Islamabad High Court's two-member bench headed by Justice Shaukat Siddiqui had admitted the government's plea against the trial court's decision to grant bail to Lakhvi and summoned him for arguments. No further proceedings have been held since then.
On December 18, 2014, the trial court granted bail to Lakhvi but was detained next day under Maintenance of Public Order (MPO) and has been kept in Adiala Jail, Rawalpindi. Pakistan faced strong reaction from India following the bail order.
The 54-year-old 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 attacks in November, 2008 that left 166 people dead. However, IHC judge Noorul Haq Qureshi suspended Lakhvi's detention on “weak legal ground”.
Just before he was to be released from the Adiala Jail, Lakhvi was arrested on charges of kidnapping Afghan national Muhammad Anwar Khan.
He got bail from a local court of Islamabad in the abduction case too.
Subsequently, a two-member Supreme Court bench headed by Justice Jawwad S Khawaja suspended the HC order to end his detention and referred the case back to it for a “complete hearing” before giving a final decision on his detention. Lakhvi has been detained in Adiala Jail in Rawalpindi under MPO till February 18.
