India lodges strong protest with Pakistan over Lakhvi release order

India on Friday said it was "extremely upset" over the verdict of a court in Islamabad ordering release of Lashkar terrorist Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi and has lodged a strong protest with the Pakistan government. The matter has been "raised at high levels" in Pakistan, official sources said.

"India is extremely upset with the verdict and as a first step lodged a strong protest with the Pakistan government," the sources said.

India's reaction came within hours of the Islamabad High Court declaring as void the detention order of the LeT operations commander Lakhvi, who was also the 2008 Mumbai terror attack mastermind. Lakhvi and six others - 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 in November, 2008 that left 166 people dead.