Pakistani security personnel escort Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi, alleged mastermind of the 2008 Mumbai attacks, as he leaves a court in Islamabad on Dec. 30, 2014.AAMIR QURESHI/AFP / Getty Images
A Pakistani court on Friday ordered the release of the main suspect in the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks because a three-month detention period has expired, a government lawyer said.
But Zaki-ur-Rahman Lakhvi was unlikely to be freed because he still faced charges in a separate kidnapping case, prosecutor Jahangir Jadoon said. "The court cancelled the detention order for Lakhvi after concluding that no solid evidence was available to keep him in the jail," he said.
Lakhvi is one of seven suspects being tried by Pakistan in connection with the attacks, which killed 166 people and seriously damaged relations between Pakistan and India. India has repeatedly urged Pakistan to actively pursue the case against Lakhvi and other suspects.
Pakistani courts have previously found no solid incriminating evidence against Lakhvi, who was accused of planning the attack. The Islamabad High Court ruled Friday that he could go free if he was not wanted by the government in any other case.
India's Ministry of External Affairs summoned the Pakistani High Commissioner in New Delhi on Friday and conveyed India's disappointment at the court's ruling. India's junior home minister Kiren Rijiju said Islamabad had not produced clinching testimony against Lakhvi despite possessing sufficient evidence.
Lakhvi's lawyer, Rizwan Abbasi, has said his client, who has been in government custody since 2009, was not being freed because of Indian pressure. Lakhvi has remained jailed under a special detention order even though a court granted bail in December.
Abbasi accused prosecutors of filing a fake kidnapping case against Lakhvi to block his release. "I will continue to fight this legal battle for the release of my client," he told The Associated Press.
Also Friday, Pakistani warplanes pounded militant hideouts in a northwestern tribal region near the Afghan border, killing at least 48 suspected militants, the military said. The airstrikes were carried out in Tirah valley in the Khyber tribal region.
Pakistan has been carrying out major operations against Pakistani Taliban and foreign militants in the country's North Waziristan and Khyber tribal regions since last year. The military has stepped up operations since December, when Taliban gunmen attacked a school in the northwestern city of Peshawar and killed 150 people, mostly children.
Also Friday, Pakistan successfully test-fired an indigenously-developed drone with the capability to fire laser-guided missiles, the military said.