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Pakistan Detains Suspect In Mumbai Attack A Day After His Ordered Release

Police in Pakistan have detained the man accused of masterminding the deadly attack on Mumbai in 2008 on unrelated charges of kidnapping, a day after a court ordered Zaki-ur-Rahman Lakhvi released.

Lakhvi was produced in court in Islamabad amid tight security and was later taken into protective custody. He is accused of kidnapping a man 6 1/2 years ago; a local court granted a police request today to detain Lakhvi for two days.

The move comes just a day after the Islamabad High Court ordered a conditional release for Lakhvi after his lawyers argued Monday that his continued detention — despite being granted bail on Dec. 18 — infringed on his rights.

That move incensed neighboring India, which protested the decision.

As we previously reported, "The case is particularly sensitive in India, which blames the Pakistan-based group Lashkar-e-Taiba for the 2008 attack in Mumbai that killed more than 160 people. Lakhvi was believed to be the group's operational chief at the time. Lakhvi and six other men were arrested by Pakistan after the attacks, but the case against them has come to a standstill."

Copyright 2021 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

Krishnadev Calamur is NPR's deputy Washington editor. In this role, he helps oversee planning of the Washington desk's news coverage. He also edits NPR's Supreme Court coverage. Previously, Calamur was an editor and staff writer at The Atlantic. This is his second stint at NPR, having previously worked on NPR's website from 2008-15. Calamur received an M.A. in journalism from the University of Missouri.
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