Lakhvi, Rawalpindi jail’s VVIP prisoner

NEW DELHI: LeT commander Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi, who may be a free man soon, was no ordinary prisoner at Rawalpindi’s Adiala jail. Not only did he enjoy the luxury of regular “outings” from prison to visit his family and friends, he was treated like a VVIP within the confines of the high-security prison and had a smooth traffic of visitors, most of them terror commanders seeking his guidance and advice.
Lakhvi, who had monitored the carnage from the LeT control room in Karachi and given blow-by-blow instructions to the 26/11 Mumbai attackers, was at one time using five different cellphones inside the jail to communicate with LeT commanders and cadres. According to intelligence sources, he made calls freely to keep tab on the outfit's operations and gave pep-talks to his terror associates.
According to a former Union home secretary, Lakhvi's detention in Adiala Jail is even better than a house arrest. While a person under house arrest cannot leave the premises of his detention or receive any visitors unless authorized by the detaining authority, Lakhvi was allowed to use vehicles and security to meet his family and terror associates outside the jail premises.
Lakhvi is known to have even fathered a child during incarceration, thanks to these “outings”. Abu Jundal, the 26/11 handler who was deported to India in 2012, had told his interrogators here that Lakhvi, during one of their meetings in Adiala Jail, had informed him that the prison authorities had allowed his wife to visit him in prison in 2010 to perform conjugal rights, following which their son was born.
According to intelligence updates submitted to the government over a period of time, Lakhvi’s “cell” in Adiala Jail is a well-appointed suite with all modern facilities, including a television set. He has access to newspapers and moves within the jail without any restrictions. “He is kept in good humour by the jailors and prison staff, under what the security agencies believe are standing instructions from Pakistani state agencies like the ISI,” a senior intelligence officer told TOI.
In fact, the jail authorities even arranged a birthday celebration for their most-coveted prisoner in 2012.
Agencies here believe that Lakhvi was arrested as Pakistan was under pressure from the Western nations. The arrest was meant to “showcase” Pakistan's commitment to bring 26/11 perpetrators to book, while secretly ensuring that he was not isolated from his family or his 'work' as a terror commander.
Pakistan has turned down repeated requests from Indian agencies for Lakhvi’s voice samples, stating that its laws do not allow samples to be taken without the consent of the accused.