PakA Pakistani court on Friday declared 26/11 Mumbai attacks mastermind Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi’s detention illegal in a six-year-old kidnapping case. The court ordered his release.
Lakhvi 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 left 166 people dead.
Lakhvi, believed to be a close relative of Laskhar-e-Toiba (LeT) founder and Jamat-ud-Dawa (JuD) chief Hafiz Saeed, was arrested in December 2008 and was indicted along with the six others on November 25, 2009 in connection with the 26/11 attack case.
Pakistan took Lakhvi and other suspects into custody in February 2009 for “facilitating” the attacks. In 2009, the Special Investigation Unit (SIU) of the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) registered an FIR against Lakhvi and six others: Abdul Wajid, Mazhar Iqbal, Hamad Amin Sadiq, Shahid Jameel Riaz, Jamil Ahmed and Younis Anjum. In August 2009, Chaudhry Zulfiqar Ali — who was prosecutor in the Benazir assassination case — was appointed special prosecutor, and Mohammad Azhar Chaudhry was appointed senior prosecutor. On May 3, 2013, Chaudhry Zulfiqar was murdered, and FIA handed his job to Abuzar Hasnain Pirzada.
The judge of the anti-terrorism court has been changed eight times since the trial began in 2009, with the last judge taking charge in January 2015
