26/11 plotter Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi after his court appearance in Islamabad on January 1, 2015 (Press Trust of India photo)
Top Lashkar e Taiba commander,
Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi, accused of plotting the 26/11 Mumbai attacks, will stay in jail, Pakistan's Supreme Court has ordered.
The country's top court has over-ruled a recent high court verdict suspending Lakhvi's detention after he was granted bail last month. 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. (
Key Suspect in 2008 Mumbai Attacks Granted Bail)
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.
The trial has produced no results so far. India has repeatedly warned Pakistan that the glacial pace of the trial is unacceptable and undermines Pakistan's stated position on checking terrorism.
Indian investigators have submitted voice samples and other evidence that reveal Lakhvi talking on satellite phones to the 10 terrorists who sailed into Mumbai and attacked its most famous landmarks.