India Thursday said the bail granted to Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi, one of the key conspirators of the 2008 Mumbai attack, was "unfortunate", would "serve as a reassurance to terrorists who perpetrate heinous crimes" and called upon Pakistan to immediately take steps to reverse the decision.
"We cannot accept that LeT's (Lashkar-e-Taiba's) chief operation commander Zakiur Lakhvi, one of the key conspirators of the Mumbai terror attacks in which so many innocent people were slaughtered, a person designated as an international terrorist by the UNSC, is being released on bail," the external affairs ministry said in a statement.
Earlier, Home Minister Rajnath Singh condemned and termed as "unfortunate" Lakhvi getting bail from a Pakistani court.
"It is very unfortunate, and I believe it should not have happened," Rajnath Singh said at a press conference here.
The external affairs ministry said the bail "comes just two days after one of the most dastardly terrorist attacks took place against a school in Peshawar, where over a hundred children were purposefully and systematically butchered in the name of revenge.
It said the grant of bail to Lakhvi "will serve as a reassurance to terrorists who perpetrate heinous crimes".
India called upon Pakistan "to immediately take steps to reverse this decision".
"There can be no selective approaches to terrorism. Given the scale of the tragedy that Pakistan itself has faced in recent days, it is incumbent on it to realise that no compromise can ever be made with terrorists," it said.
On what India would do and whether evidence provided by it were good enough to hold the case tight, Rajnath Singh said: "I believe whatever evidence India has given to Pakistan on Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi are more than enough to nail him."
"The Pakistan government must appeal in higher court against it and get the bail cancelled," he said.
The home minister said he would discuss the issue with External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj so that the case could be directly taken up with the Pakistani authorities.
"She (Sushma Swaraj) herself must have taken the required steps but I will discuss it with her," Rajnath Singh said.
On the Peshawar terror attack, he said Prime Minister Narendra Modi conveyed India's message to the people of Pakistan.
"It was not only Pakistani people but Indians also have equally been hurt by the inhuman attack (on school children)," he said.
