key suspect in the 2009 attack on the Sri Lankan cricket team in Lahore has been released from Kot Lakhpat Jail after the
Pakistan Supreme Court
granted him bail.
Malik Ishaq, one of the founders of the banned Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, had appealed to the Supreme Court to overturn the decision of the Lahore high court (LHC), which had rejected his bail plea earlier.
Ishaq had been accused of plotting the attack while he was in prison.
According to The Express Tribune, Ishaq was granted bail, as the charges against him could not be proved.
He had been in prison since 1997 and had 44 cases ranging from murder to terrorism lodged against him, but the court acquitted him in 34 cases and granted him bail in the rest.
The attack on the Sri Lankan team occurred on March 3, 2009, when a bus carrying the cricketers was fired upon by 12 gunmen, near the Gaddafi Stadium in Lahore.
The cricketers were on their way to play the third day of the second Test against Pakistan.
Six members of the Sri Lankan team were injured. Six Pakistani policemen and two civilians were killed.
These were the first attacks on a national sports team since the Munich massacre of Israeli athletes by Palestinian militants in 1972.
The attack was carried out by Jaish-e-Mohammed and Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, the outlawed militant groups with close links to al-Qaida.
Earlier: napaki.tumblr.com
Twitter handle: @napaki
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