A Pakistani court on Friday (March 13) suspended the detention order of LeT operations commander Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi, the 2008 Mumbai terror attack mastermind, and ordered his immediate release, drawing India's ire. "Today the Islamabad High Court accepted Lakhvi's plea against his detention and ordered his immediate release," a court official told PTI. He said IHC judge Noorul Haq Qureshi had declared the government's order to detain Lakhvi under Maintenance of Public Order "illegal" and ordered his immediate release. Raja Rizwan Abbasi, counsel for Lakhvi, told PTI that he would submit the court's order to the administration of the Adiala Jail Rawalpindi for the release of his client. "We haven't yet received the court's order. However, we will submit the same to Adiala Jail for immediate release of Mr Lakhvi," he said. India strongly reacted to the IHC's ruling, saying the overwhelming evidence against Lakhvi has not been presented properly before court by Pakistani agencies. "It is the responsibility of the Pakistan government to take all legal measures to ensure that Lakhvi does not come out of jail," India's Ministry of Home Affairs said in Delhi.
Sources in Pakistan's interior ministry said the federal government might detain Lakhvi under another public security order as the court hadalready restrained it from registering any other case against Lakhvi without its prior permission. "The HC has suspended the 30 days detention order MPO which was expiring this week. The government may detain him under a fresh detention order under the same law," they said. The last 30-day detention order was expiring this week. This is the second time the IHC suspended the government's order to detain Lakhvi under MPO. Lakhvi last month had challenged his 'fresh' detention under Maintenance of Public Order. On December 18, 2014, the trial court (Anti-Terrorism Cout-I, Islamabad) granted bail to Lakhvi but he was detained next day under the MPO. However, the IHC suspended Lak
