Pakistan court to hear on Jan 6 govt appeal against Lakhvi's bail

Islamabad, Jan 4: Pakistan government's appeal against the bail to Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi, the mastermind of the 2008 Mumbai attack, will be heard by a court here on Tuesday, a court official said on Sunday.

"The Islamabad High Court (IHC) has fixed January 6 for hearing of the government's plea against Lakhvi's bail on its request. A division bench has been constituted to take up the matter," the official told reporters.

He said the government had requested the IHC to consider the matter "urgent" and fix the date of hearing at earliest.

"The court has also issued a notice to respondent Lakhvi for Tuesday's hearing," the official said. Yesterday, the Pakistan government challenged LeT operations commander Lakhvi's bail in the IHC, saying an anti-terrorism court ignored testimony in the 26/11 case while granting bail to him.

According to government's petition filed by Federal Investigation Agency Additional Director General Mohammad Khalid Qureshi, "The fact remains that such cases of defunct terrorist organisations are not so easy to be conducted and especially the prosecution in such cases is the most difficult job in our country for the last many years".

"In the present case, the learned trial judge (of ATC) after the terrorist attack in Islamabad courts (of March 2013) refused to visit Adiala Jail for a long time due to security reasons. Even the prosecutors of this case have been receiving threats through cell phones during the proceedings which were duly conveyed to the concerned authorities," it said.

"The witnesses are also not secured, and reluctant to depose against the accused persons in the given situation. A major part of the evidence has been recorded and the rest will not take more than three months to record and therefore the observation of the ATC's judge that the trial may take years to conclude is not correct."

The prosecution further mentioned in their plea that the trial has not been delayed because of the prosecution but "multiple applications filed by the defence counsel hampered progress of the case".

"The prosecution had moved several applications for an expeditious trial but the trial court did not properly examine these facts," it said.

The appeal further pointed out that the confessional statement of Ajmal Kasab, the lone terrorist arrested by Indian authorities after Mumbai attack, was still part of the evidence and it was at no stage discarded and that statement clearly established Lakhvi's link to the attack.

"The prosecution has sufficient evidence against Lakhvi thereby requesting the court to cancel his bail," it said.

PTI