DHAKA: The mastermind of the 26/11 attacks, Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi, has been released from a jail in Pakistan.

Jail officials in Rawalpindi said Lakhvi was released on Friday morning.

The Lahore High Court had Thursday ordered that he be released, provoking a strong reaction from India.

Lakhvi, the 55-year-old military chief of the terror group Lashkar-e-Taiba was arrested in Pakistan in 2009, months after 166 people were killed in Mumbai by 10 gunmen who sprayed bullets and threw grenades at city landmarks for three days.

Lakhvi was first granted bail in December, but was kept in prison by the government under a public security act after a scathing reaction from India. Prime Minister Narendra Modi said the prospect of Lakhvi walking free came as "a shock to all those who believe in humanity".

On Thursday, a court said that government lawyers had failed to provide evidence to justify Lakhvi's detention, paving the way for his release, even as officials reportedly began a hunt for a new route to keep him in prison.

Throughout the three-month back and forth over Lakhvi's detention, he has never been let out of Adiyala Prison in Rawalpindi.

Lakhvi and six other suspects have been charged in Pakistan for planning and executing the Mumbai attacks, but their cases have made virtually no progress in more than five years, inciting repeated protests from India.

Delhi accuses Islamabad of prevaricating over the trials, and says it has submitted enough evidence to prove that Lakhvi is responsible for its worst-ever terror attack.

Source: NDTV
BDST: 1722 HRS, APR 10, 2015
RS