DEC. 30, 2014
Suspect in 2008 Mumbai Attacks Is Held in Pakistan on New Charge
By SALMAN MASOOD
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan -- The Islamabad police on Tuesday rearrested a militant commander accused of masterminding the 2008 Mumbai terrorist attacks, just a day after a high court said he could post bail [1] in that case.
Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi, a senior commander with the militant group Lashkar-e-Taiba, was arrested on Tuesday on charges of kidnapping a man in a new case that was opened at an Islamabad police station on Monday night.
Mr. Lakhvi had been scheduled to be released on Tuesday from a maximum-security prison in Adiala, on the outskirts of Rawalpindi.
Police officials said a complaint was lodged against Mr. Lakhvi, accusing him of kidnapping the man after luring him to wage jihad.
There was no immediate explanation from officials as to why the complaint was registered only this week. On Tuesday morning a civil court judge allowed the Islamabad police to detain Mr. Lakhvi for two more days to investigate the allegations.
Mr. Lakhvi was presented before the judge in an Islamabad district court under strict security. During the hearing police officers and paramilitary troops were present in large numbers outside the court compound.
Raja Rizwan Abbasi, Mr. Lakhvi's lawyer, denounced the new case and said the kidnapping charge was "fabricated and fake."
Mr. Lakhvi was first granted bail on Dec. 18 [2] after a judge declared grounds were insufficient to continue detaining him in the Mumbai case. But the government immediately ordered a 30-day extension of his detention. His lawyer objected to the move, and a judge of the Islamabad High Court accepted that plea on Monday and ordered his release.
Mr. Lakhvi is among seven people who are standing trial over accusations that they were involved in the Mumbai attacks, which deeply strained relations between India and Pakistan. More than 160 people were killed in the coordinated attacks.
The trial here has been going on since 2009, and the Indian government has protested the slow pace of the prosecution. Pakistani officials have responded by saying that the evidence offered by India has been weak and insufficient.
The latest twist showed the pressure the Pakistani government is under to keep Mr. Lakhvi behind bars because of diplomatic protests by India and concerns expressed by the United States.
"It seems to be a case of damage limitation," said Cyril Almeida, an editor at the newspaper Dawn. "The Lakhvi bail caused disbelief in many capitals in the world."
He added, "Within Pakistan, it exposed that perhaps a dual system is still in place, one for the bad terrorists and another for the good pro-Kashmir, anti-India militants."
Mr. Almeida continued: "But damage is already done. Keeping him behind bars on one pretext or another for a while longer does nothing to move ahead on the Mumbai-related trial. That's the signal, moving ahead on Mumbai, that the world is looking for, and that's the signal Pakistan isn't willing to send."