A Pakistani court granted bail on Thursday to a man accused of masterminding a deadly 2008 rampage through the Indian city of Mumbai, lawyers said.
The decision to grant bail to Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi is likely to enrage India and may hinder recent attempts to patch up rocky relations between the nuclear-armed neighbours.
Lakhvi was arrested in Pakistan in 2009 in connection with the attack on Mumbai by Pakistani militants in which 166 people were killed. The sole surviving gunman had identified Lakhvi as the mastermind.
Since then, he has been held in the top-security Adiala Jail in the city of Rawalpindi, adjacent to the capital, Islamabad.
"Yes, the court has issued Lakhvi's bail orders today, against a surety amount of one million rupees ($10,000)," defence lawyer Rizwan Abbasi told Reuters.
"Hopefully, he will be out on Monday or Tuesday."
Prosecutors could challenge the ruling, one said.
"After reading through the detailed order, we will be in a position to decide if we are going to challenge the court's decision," said prosecutor Chaudhry Azhar.
India blamed Pakistan-based militant group Lashkar-e-Taiba for the Mumbai attacks. Ten gunmen spent three days spraying bullets and throwing grenades around some of the country's most famous landmarks.
Relations between India and Pakistan, who have fought three wars since independence from Britain in 1947, nosedived after the attacks and have still not fully recovered. A long-running dispute over the Kashmir region periodically flares into violence.