A Pakistani anti-terrorism court today exempted the mastermind of the 2008 Mumbai attack Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi from appearing in-person after the LeT operations commander cited “serious threats to his life” after he was released from prison on April 10, 2015.
The trial court (Anti-Terrorism Court Islamabad) has exempted Lakhvi from in-person appearance in the court on security grounds.
–Raja Rizwan Abbasi, Lakhvi’s Counsel
The 55-year-old accused, along with six others, attended the court proceedings of the case, which started in February 2009, from the Adiala jail in Rawalpindi city of Pakistan.
The Inspector General of Islamabad reported that Lakhvi had serious threats to his life from foreign intelligence agency and the Taliban, according to Abbasi.
Lakhvi and six other accused - Abdul Wajid, Mazhar Iqbal, Hamad Amin Sadiq, Shahid Jameel Riaz, Jamil Ahmed and Younis Anjum - have been charged in 2009 with planning and executing the Mumbai attack in November, 2008 that left 166 people dead.
Snail Speed of the Court Case
The terror attack mastermind was released from Adiala Jail after the Lahore High Court suspended his detention under a security act.
Since then, he has been living in an undisclosed location.
The Islamabad High Court, after his release, had ordered the trial court to conclude the Mumbai attack case in two months. The two-month deadline has passed but the pace of the case has not yet picked up.
Lakhvi has skipped appearance in the court on several occasions in the past, which is against the law mandate.
The trial court has decided to hold the hearing twice a week - Wednesday and Thursday - to expedite the case.
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