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Lahore High Court Orders Release Of Alleged 26/11 Mastermind

Lahore High Court Orders Release Of Alleged 26/11 Mastermind
An alleged plotter of Mumbai attacks, Pakistani Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi, center, prays with Syed Salahuddin, right, chief of Hezbul Mujahedeen, or United Jehad Council, at a rally on Saturday, June 28, 2008, in Muzaffarabad, capital of Pakistani Kashmir. Pakistan has detained Zarrar Shah, another alleged mastermind of the Mumbai terrorist attacks, Pakistani Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani confirmed Wednesday, Dec. 10, 2008, apparently making good on pledges to pursue the perpetrators. (AP Photo/Roshan Mughal)
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An alleged plotter of Mumbai attacks, Pakistani Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi, center, prays with Syed Salahuddin, right, chief of Hezbul Mujahedeen, or United Jehad Council, at a rally on Saturday, June 28, 2008, in Muzaffarabad, capital of Pakistani Kashmir. Pakistan has detained Zarrar Shah, another alleged mastermind of the Mumbai terrorist attacks, Pakistani Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani confirmed Wednesday, Dec. 10, 2008, apparently making good on pledges to pursue the perpetrators. (AP Photo/Roshan Mughal)

Lahore High Court suspended the detention order against alleged 26/11 Mumbai attack mastermind Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi on Thursday, and ordered his immediate release.

Lakhvi, 55, has been accused of planning the deadly terrorist attack in Mumbai in November 2008, which claimed 166 lives in the heart of India's business capital.

Justice Muhammad Anwarul Haq suspended Lakhvi's detention after the government failed to present sensitive records against him in the court.

"The law officer had submitted important information about Lakhvi, but the court did not accept this and declared the evidence unsatisfactory," an official of LHC told PTI.

Haq on the last hearing on April 7 had reportedly directed the government's counsel to submit record of secret documents about activities of Lakhvi.

Lakhvi’s counsel Raja Rizwan Abbasi argued that after the LHC’s earlier direction he had filed a representation before the Punjab home secretary against his “illegal” detention but the home secretary dismissed it and upheld the 30-day detention order issued by District Coordination Officer, Okara, PTI reported.

Abbasi then pleaded that a person could not be detained beyond 90 days without obtaining an order from review board and the detention period of his client had gone beyond 90 days.

The Indian government says it has submitted several dossiers of evidence against Lakhvi to the Pakistan government.

Lakhvi was granted bail in December, a day after 148 people, including 132 children, were killed in deadly attack on a school in Peshawar carried out by the Pakistani Taliban. Pakistan's Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif had vowed to root out terrorism as his country mourned the loss of innocent lives.

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