PHOTO: AFP
Pakistan has denied reports of the United Kingdom and Washington asking for the handover of alleged Mumbai attacks mastermind Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi to India or to them for his "independent trial" to help improve ties between the two neighbouring countries.
"No one has asked or sent any formal request to the government to handover the person (Lakhvi) to India or any other country," Foreign Office spokesperson Tasneem Aslam told Times of India.
According to the Times of India, Federal Investigation Agency's prosecution chief Chaudhry Azhar informed the Islamabad High Court on Monday that two countries had asked Pakistan to hand over Lakhvi. However, he did not name the counties.
Although media reports suggested the US and London had written to Pakistan and sought Lakhvi's custody.
On December 18, an anti-terrorism court granted bail to the alleged mastermind of the 2008 terror attacks in Mumbai. However, a day later the government detained him under Maintenance of Public Order.
RELATED POST: Alleged mastermind: Mumbai attack suspect granted bail
However, the Islamabad High Court suspended the detention order of Lakhvi, a move the federal government challenged in the apex court.
RELATED POST: Terror backlash feared: Govt appeals against suspension of Lakhvi’s detention order
On January 19, the Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT) administration extended the detention order of Lakhvi, the alleged mastermind of the Mumbai attacks, for another 30 days.
Deputy Commissioner Islamabad Mujahid Sherdil issued a notification extending the detention of Lakhvi for another 30 days under Section 3 of the Maintenance of Public Order (MPO) in Adiala jail.
RELATED POST: Lakhvi's detention order extended for another 30 days
Earlier, on January 16 the administration extended the detention orders for ten days through verbal orders. However, now the detention order has been extended through a notification, an ICT official said.
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PAK is not going to prosecute this guy for Mumbai , because he will name names. PAK is not going to send him to India either and argue that he will not get a fair trial in india or the alleged crime by him was committed in PAK so he must be tried in PAK, etc.
He is not going to UK either since UK has its own nightmare to deal with.
PAK court cannot hold him indefinely either, unless his bail is revoked but no judge is going to do that.
Soon the might of the US hand will come down heavy upon him with federal indictment, once all the other avenues are exhausted. It will be an another embarrassment for PAK like Abbottabad.
Any bets?
If you were serious about improving relations with your neighbors you would have handed these thugs over to your neighbors/allies without "formal" request. Your own judiciary isn't trusted - hence the formation of military courts - so you should allow other to prosecute these thugs whenever possible.
Looks like another embarrassing episode for pakistan like Raymind davis case.
Handover Lakhvi to India or a neutral country for trial and immediately stalled peace talk for normalization of relation will start.