Lahore/Lucknow: The 2008 Mumbai attack mastermind and LeT operations commander Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi, on Friday walked free from a Pakistani jail after spending nearly six years in detention.
Authorities in Adiala Jail in Rawalpindi today released 55-year-old Lakhvi, a day after the Lahore High Court (LHC) suspended his detention under a security act.
India had strongly reacted to the court's decision, saying it "eroded" the value of assurances repeatedly conveyed to it by Pakistan on cross-border terrorism.
A member of Lakhvi's legal team today submitted the LHC order to the jail authorities and subsequently they released him at 1.40 pm.
Jamaat-ud-Dawa supporters were present outside the prison to receive Lakhvi. Some four to five cars reached outside the Adiala Jail at around 1 pm and as soon Lakhvi came out of the jail, he got into his car and left for his Islamabad residence.
JuD spokesman Yahya Mujahid did not offer any comment on Lakhvi's release when PTI contacted him.
"We have released Lakhvi after a member of his legal team presented the LHC order. There has been no direction from the government to either detain or release him," a jail official told PTI.
Yesterday LHC had suspended the Punjab government's order to detain Lakhvi under a security act and ordered his immediate release.
Earlier in the day, the government's legal team discussed several options to keep Lakhvi behind the bars. However, it could not offer any legal ground to further detain him.
Agovernment law officer earlier said it was difficult for the government to go for the option of detaining Lakhvi again under the Maintenance of Public Order which had been suspended twice by the Islamabad High Court (IHC) and Lahore High Court.
Lakhvi's counsel Raja Rizwan Abbasi said, "The government was left with no other 'legal option' but to release his client after the LHC suspended his detention. Neither the government nor the Adiala Jail authorities could violate the court's order this time," he said.
Lakhvi and six others have been charged with planning and executing the 2008 Mumbai attack that killed 166 people and wounding over 300.
Lakhvi, a close relative of LeT founder and 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. The trial has been underway since 2009.
