26/11 Mumbai attacks: Pakistan talks of Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi & Swami Aseemanand in the same breath

NEW DELHI: Pakistan on Thursday sent Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi, the mastermind of the 2008 Mumbai attack, to 14 days judicial custody but was quick to point out that key perpetrator behind the Samjhauta train blast Swami Aseemanand is out on bail and India is yet to share findings of this terror strike with Islamabad.

Lakhvi, 54, was produced before a judicial magistrate of the local court in Islamabad on the expiry of his two-day physical remand. The magistrate rejected the police’s request for further five days remand to interrogate the suspect and sent him to judicial custody for 14 days at Adiala Jail where he had been detained in the Mumbai terror attack case for the last five years. He will be produced again before the court on January 15.

Just before Lakhvi was to be released on last Tuesday after Islamabad High Court suspended his detention, he was arrested on charges of kidnapping a man named Muhammad Anwar Khan, an Afghan national. The court also granted Lakhvi’s two-day physical remand to police.

According to an FIR registered on Monday at a police station in Islamabad, Khan was kidnapped by Lakhvi six years ago.

Lakhvi was granted bail on December 18 a day after Peshawar attack in the 26/11 case but was detained under the Maintenance of Public Order (MPO). He challenged his detention under MPO in the Islamabad High Court which on Monday suspended the government order, evoking a strong reaction from India.