LAHORE, Pakistan: The Punjab government on Tuesday filed a petition in the Supreme Court against the Lahore High Court’s (LHC) release orders for 2008 Mumbai attack suspect Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi.
The 55-year-old Lakhvi was released from Rawalpindi’s Adiala Jail on April 10, a day after the LHC’s Justice Anwarul Haq suspended detention orders issued against Lakhvi and ordered his immediate release.
In the petition filed in the apex court on Tuesday, the Punjab Home Department maintained that there was sufficient evidence against Lakhvi but the LHC had ignored it and ordered his release.
The Punjab Home Department in its petition requested that the LHC’s decision to release Lakhvi be suspended with the top court permitting to restore his detention under Maintenance of Public Order (MPO).
In response to Lakhvi’s release, a senior Indian Home Ministry official had described release of Lakhvi as an “insult” to the 26/11 victims and asked the international community to take note of Pakistan’s double standards.
However, Pakistan blamed India for the delay in Lakhvi’s trial and his eventual release.
“Inordinate delay in extending cooperation by India complicated the case and weakened the prosecution’s case,” the Foreign Office Spokesperson Tasnim Aslam said in a statement issued on April 10.
Lakhvi is among the seven persons charged with planning and helping carry out the November 2008 Mumbai attacks that left 166 people dead.
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