ISLAMABAD: The Islamabad high court (IHC) on Monday suspended the government’s detention order of Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi, the key handler in the 26/11 Mumbai attacks case.

The decision came in response to a petition filed by Lakhvi, 54, in the IHC against the government’s order to detain him for three more months under Maintenance of Public Order (MPO) the day after Islamabad’s anti-terrorism court (ATC) granted him a post-arrest bail on December 18.

During Monday’s hearing, Raja Rizwan Abbasi, Lakhvi's counsel said, “The court had previously accepted Lakhvi’s bail but the government unlawfully detained him in Rawalpindi’s Adiala Jail. The granting of bail is an issue of fundamental rights guaranteed by the constitution and the administration violates it through unlawful detention.” The counsel requested the court to annul the detention orders.

READ ALSO: Pakistan detains Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi for 3 more months

After hearing the case, Justice Noorul Haq Qureshi suspended Lakhvi's detention.

Several observers believe that Lakhvi’s release highlights Pakistani state's patronage of Lashkar even as its military leadership was battling other terror groups. “The bail, MPO and suspension of MPO show contradictions inherent in a policy which has long been kept in the realm of the obscure, and its contours still not very clear,” Muhammad Ilyas Khan, a well-known Pakistani analyst told the TOI.

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Pakistan court grants bail to 26/11 accused Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi

Who is Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi

Operations commander of the banned Lashkar-e-Taiba, the parent organization of Jamaat-ud-Dawa, Lakhvi has been one among the seven accused charged with planning, financing and executing the 26/11 Mumbai carnage that killed 166 people.

He and many of his accomplices were arrested from LeT's headquarters in Muzaffarabad in December 2008 and the case against them was registered in February 2009. Since then, the case had been moving at a snail's pace with almost no headway.

Following the confession of Ajmal Kasab, the lone fidayeen survivor of the Mumbai attack, naming Lakhvi as his trainer, Syed Zabiuddin Ansari alias Abu Jundal, an Indian national who was arrested in and deported from Saudi Arabia in June 2012, too confessed that he was in the control room with Lakhvi in Karachi monitoring the Mumbai attacks. Pakistani-American jihadist David Headley has also confessed to Lakhvi's key role in the Mumbai attacks. on Wednesday had submitted an application with the Pakistan government seeking an end to his detention under MPO.

The decision to grant bail to Lakhvi, 54, drew sharp criticism from India and surprised many for its timing, just days after Taliban massacred 148 people, mostly school children, in Peshawar.

Lakhvi and six other accused — Abdul Wajid, Mazhar Iqbal, Hamad Amin Sadiq, Shahid Jameel Riaz, Jamil Ahmed and Younis Anjum — have been charged with planning and executing the Mumbai attacks that took place on November 26, 2008, and left 166 people dead.

Read this in Hindi: ​ हिरासत में भी नहीं रहेगा मुंबई का गुनहगार लखवी

(With inputs from PTI)