(MENAFN- The Peninsula) A Pakistani government prosecutor said yesterday he will challenge a court order granting bail to the alleged mastermind of the 2008 terror attacks in Mumbai, which sparked strong condemnation from India.
Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi is accused of planning the 60-hour siege on India's commercial capital that left 166 people dead and was blamed on the banned Pakistani militant group Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT).
A judge in an Islamabad anti-terror court granted Lakhvi bail on Thursday, prompting anger in neighbouring India which urged the Pakistani government to appeal.
"I am completing all the legal formalities and then I will challenge this order in Islamabad on Monday," government prosecutor Mohammad Azhar Chaudhry said.
Lakhvi remained in the high security Adyala prison in garrison city of Rawalpindi even after Thursday's court ruling.
"Today I am trying to get a copy of the written (bail) order and then I will file an appeal in Islamabad high court," Chaudhry said.
The court's ruling on Thursday came a day after Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif vowed to crack down on terror groups in Pakistan, after Taliban gunmen massacred 148 people, mostly teenagers, at a school.
Sharif on Wednesday announced that a six-year moratorium on the death penalty would be lifted for those convicted of terror offences. "Bail to LeT commander Zaki-ur Rehman Lakhvi has come as a shock to all those who believe in humanity world over," India Prime Minister Narendra Modi told parliament in Delhi.
The horror of the Mumbai carnage played out on live television around the world, as commandos battled the heavily-armed gunmen, who arrived by sea on the evening of November 26, 2008. It took the authorities three days to regain full control of the city and New Delhi has long said there is evidence that "official agencies" in Pakistan were involved in plotting the attack.
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