India working on strong response on bail to LeT commander Zaki Ur Rehman Lakhvi

NEW DELHI: India is working with its mission in Pakistan to prepare a strong response against granting of bail to LeT commander Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi, one of the masterminds of the 2008 terror attack.

Within hours of an Anti-Terrorism Court in Rawalpindi granting bail to Lakhvi, one of the seven Pakistani nationals accused of planning and abetting the Mumbai terror attacks, sources said the government here started working along with its mission in Islamabad on a strong response against the court verdict.

Lakhvi and six others had filed bail applications yesterday even as lawyers were observing a strike to condemn the terrorist attack on an army-run school in Peshawar that left 148 people, mostly children, dead.

The FIA (Federal Investigation Agency) prosecutor disagreed with the bail request, however, advocate Rizwan Abbasi, the lawyer representing Lakhvi stood before the court as the bail was approved, the Dawn reported.

The seven accused - Lakhvi, Abdul Wajid, Mazhar Iqbal, Hamad Amin Sadiq, Shahid Jameel Riaz, Jamil Ahmed and Younis Anjum - are facing trial at the Adiala Jail in Rawalpindi.

Lakhvi, who was the operational head of the banned Laskhar-e-Taiba, was one of the key planners of the Mumbai attack that killed 166 people.

His release from jail comes a day after Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif pledged to announce a "national plan" to tackle terrorism within a week, saying "this entire region" should be cleansed of terrorism.