26/11 plotter Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi after his court appearance in Islamabad on January 1, 2015 (Press Trust of India photo)
A lower court in Pakistan granted bail to top Lashkar-e-Taiba commander and 26/11 Mumbai attacks mastermind
Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi in an abduction case. But as per the orders of the Pakistan Supreme Court order, he will remain in jail.
The country's top court had over-ruled a recent high court verdict earlier this month suspending Lakhvi's detention after he was granted bail in December last year. The Pakistan government had challenged the high court order in the Supreme Court.
Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi, who has been in jail since 2009, was granted bail by an anti-terror court on December 18, but was rearrested. His lawyers had appealed against his detention in the High Court, which held it invalid.
The grant of bail to Lakhvi provoked strong condemnation from India, which summoned Pakistan High Commissioner Abdul Basit to register its protest against the court order that Lakhvi could walk free.
Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi was among seven people arrested in 2009 for terror attack in Mumbai in 2008, in which 166 people were killed. While granting him bail last month the anti-terror court had said there was not enough evidence to prove Lakhvi's role in the worst-ever terror attack in India.