Islamabad: Lashker-e-Taiba operations commander Zakiur Rahman Lakhvi, the mastermind of the Mumbai terror attacks was found roaming freely in Pakistan. Several videos went viral on social media wherein he could be seen enjoying dance classes and attending special gym sessions. Although it remained unclear about the exact location and the date of the video, multiple media reports claimed he changed his look.
Earlier, as captured on cameras during his so-called judicial trials in Islamabad, he could be seen with a long beard. However, in the video, which went viral for more than a month on social media platforms, Lakhvi could be seen in clean shaved condition. In the video, he could be seen flaunting his exercising skills.
Pakistan court Lakhvi to five years in prison
In 2021, a Pakistan court Lakhvi to five years in prison for terror financing. He has been accused by India and the US of orchestrating the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks, in which at least 160 people were killed.
For a long, Islamabad denied his involvement in terror attacks in India, but after facing financial turmoil and inclusion in the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) grey list, it had to send him to jail. Since then, he has been seen multiple times roaming freely on the streets of Pakistan.
India's asked Pakistan to handover Lakhvi
On several occasions, India asked to extradite him, but Pakistan has so far said it will not hand over to India any of its nationals found to be linked to the Mumbai attacks. It has also been said that such individuals will be tried under Pakistani laws. Reports in the US media have said that Lakhvi came from the same area in Pakistan as Ajmal Amir Iman alias Ajmal Kasab, the lone gunman arrested in Mumbai out of the 10 terrorists who killed over 180 people.
The Dawn reported that officials in Islamabad appeared reluctant to accept the intercepts of Lakhvi's conversation provided to them by American and British intelligence agencies as authentic. The intercepts include Lakhvi's cellphone conversations with gunmen holed up inside Mumbai's Taj Hotel during the 60-hour siege.
Officials in Pakistan said Kasab's confession and other evidence were inadmissible in court. They said that since the confessions had been "obtained under severe pressure" by the Indians, this could not be admissible in any judicial process. They have insisted that the information provided will not stand scrutiny in court, the report said. There is also a "serious difference of opinion between Islamabad and the Pakistan embassy in Washington over the issue", the report added. While Islamabad is "reluctant to accept the evidence as authentic, the embassy insisted that it is authentic and that the Pakistani authorities now needed to take steps to satisfy the international community", it said.
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It was not yet clear if the US recorded the conversations between Lakhvi and the terrorists in Mumbai using their own surveillance methods or received the tape from India, which has accused Lakhvi of masterminding the attacks.
In 2009, Indian officials told journalists in Delhi that they believed Lakhvi and LeT operative Yusuf Muzammil had masterminded the Mumbai attacks. Officials in New Delhi and Washington have said they would not be satisfied unless Islamabad followed up by prosecuting those arrested and taking further action against other militant groups linked to attacks on Indian soil.
(With inputs from agency)
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