26/11 mastermind Lakhvi gets bail

Afzal khan in Islamabad

An anti-terrrorism court in Pakistani on Thursday granted bail to LeT operations commander Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi, a key planner of the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks, just a day after Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif said there is no 'good' and 'bad' Taliban.

The United Nations has banned the LeT and has listed it as a designated terrorist organisation. Lakhvi (54) and six others had filed bail applications yesterday in the midst of a lawyers strike to condemn the Peshawar school massacre that left 166 people, mostly children, dead.

The court directed Lakhvi to pay a surety bond of Rs 5,00,000 before he can be released on bail. The acceptance of his bail plea came as Pakistan is mourning Tuesday's massacre of 132 schoolchildren in the Peshawar Taliban attack.

Prosecution chief Chaudhry Azhar said the prosecution had to produce more witnesses before this decision had come which they were not expecting. "We were not expecting this decision as we have to produce a good number of witnesses in the case. We are awaiting the court's detailed order before giving further comment on the decision," he said. Lakhvi's counsel advocate Raja Rizwan Abbasi said the court had granted bail as "evidence against Lakhvi was deficient".

The decision triggered uproar in Indian political parties across the board as they accused Pakistan of sheltering terrorists. It also came under attack from the prosecutor in the Ajmal Kasab case, Ujwal Nikam. The Indian mission here is also preparing a strong response against the grant of bail to Lakhvi.

Abbasi said the defence would soon file bail applications of the other six accused. The in-camera hearing of the case was held at Adiala Jail Rawalpindi due to security concerns.The judge adjourned the hearing till January 7. Terror attacks in Mumbai on November 26, 2008, have soured relations between the two countries. India has also been seeking the arrest and extradition of Hafiz Saeed whom it blames as mastermind of the Mumbai attacks and head of the banned Lashkar-e-Toiba, the predecessor of his present outfit Jamiat-ud-Dawat. The seven accused — Lakhvi, Abdul Wajid, Mazhar Iqbal, Hamad Amin Sadiq, Shahid Jameel Riaz, Jamil Ahmed and Younis Anjum — are facing trial at the Adiala Jail in Rawalpindi.

“We announce that there will be no differentiation between 'good' and 'bad' Taliban and have resolved to continue the war against terrorism till the last terrorist is eliminated," Sharif had said after an all party meeting to discuss counter terrorism measures in the wake of the Peshawar massacre. The trial of the seven suspects has progressed at a snail's pace due to repeated adjournments and various technical delays.

Lakhvi, the operational head of the banned Laskhar-e- Toiba, was one of the key planners of the Mumbai attack that killed 166 people. Nine of the terrorists involved in the attack were killed by Indian security forces. The proceedings of the case began in 2009 at the ATC in Rawalpindi and the case was transferred to the ATC in Islamabad the next year. In April this year, the proceedings came to a virtual halt as special judge of the ATC expressed his inability to conduct the trial of the seven suspects due to security reasons. This came following a terrorist attack on the district courts in Islamabad in March. 

 (With PTI inputs)