LHC told: I am detained on Indian pressure, says Lakhvi

Court asks Punjab home secretary to decide his petition in five days

LAHORE:

The Lahore High Court (LHC) has given the Punjab government five days to make a decision regarding the detention of Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi, the alleged mastermind of the 2008 Mumbai attacks.

The single-bench court issued on Thursday this order on a petition filed by Lakhvi, the commander of proscribed militant group Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), seeking directions for the Punjab home secretary to decide his detention matter.

On March 20, the LHC had dismissed Lakhvi’s petition challenging his detention, directing him to approach the home secretary – the first remedy to challenge the detention. While appearing before the court, the counsel for Lakhvi submitted that they approached the home secretary but he is delaying a decision on it. He was using delaying tactics in this regard, the counsel added.



Lakhvi said he challenged his detention orders issued by the District Coordination Officer Okara on March 13 as illegal. Lakhvi, son of Hafiz Azizur Rehman, resident of Renala Khurd, Okara submitted that for no fault of his, he is behind bars for the last six years.  He contends that he is not a member of any banned organisation and has no intent to create unrest. The LeT leader stated that the Indian authorities sent information to the government on the basis of which an FIR against him and six others was registered in 2009.  On November 25, 2009 he was indicted along with six others for planning and helping to carry out the Mumbai attacks. The ATC had granted him bail on surety bonds of Rs500,000 on December 18, 2014.

Lakhvi said, since then the Indian authorities were bent upon blaming Pakistan for the incident which was highly unfortunate but as a routine they started propaganda against our country.

He said the moment the court granted him bail, the entire Indian media and functionaries started propagating against Pakistan and the petitioner, which resulted in his confinement under Section 3 of the Maintenance of Public Order.  Lakhvi also said the detention order was suspended by the court but the authorities instead of releasing him, registered another FIR against him and kept him detained on Indian government’s pressure.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 27^th, 2015.