ISLAMABAD: A Pakistani court yesterday granted bail to the alleged mastermind of the 2008 terror attacks in Mumbai, lawyers said, a move likely to further inflame tensions with India.
The 60-hour siege on India’s economic capital left 166 people dead and was blamed on the banned Pakistani militant group Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT).
Relations between the two nuclear-armed rivals worsened dramatically after the carnage, in which 10 gunmen attacked luxury hotels, a popular cafe, a train station and a Jewish centre.
Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi (pictured), accused of masterminding events, was granted bail by a judge in the capital Islamabad.
“We had moved a bail application with the Islamabad anti-terror court on December 10, today the judge granted bail to my client after hearing arguments from both sides,” Lakhvi’s lawyer Rizwan Abbasi said. Prosecutor Mohammad Chaudhry Azhar confirmed the court had granted bail.
The horror of the Mumbai carnage played out on live television around the world, as commandos battled the heavily-armed gunmen, who arrived by sea on the evening of November 26.
It took the authorities three days to regain full control of the city and New Delhi has long said there is evidence that “official agencies” in Pakistan were involved in plotting the attack.
Islamabad denies the charge but LeT’s charitable arm Jamaat-ud-Dawa (JuD), seen as a front for the militant group, operates openly in the country. LeT founder Hafiz Saeed also leads a high-profile existence despite a $10m US government bounty offered for his capture, regularly appearing on TV and addressing large public gatherings of his followers.
Seven Pakistani suspects have been charged with planning and financing the attacks but the failure to advance their trials has been a major obstacle to normalising ties with India. Delhi has accused Islamabad of prevaricating over the trials, while Pakistan has claimed India failed to hand over crucial evidence.
The sole surviving gunman from Mumbai, Pakistani-born Mohammed Ajmal Kasab, was hanged in India in 2012.
The attacks derailed a nascent peace process between nuclear-armed India and Pakistan. Analyst Pervez Hoodbhoy said the development would hurt ties with India. “After the Peshawar massacre there was an outpouring of sympathy for Pakistan from many countries, including India. But this will pass soon,” he said.
AFP
