A wise and bold decision: Pak govt refuses to defend Hafiz Saeed in US court
Hafiz Saeed, who is suspected to have masterminded the 2008 Mumbai attack, tops the list of India’s most-wanted men. In his testimony in a Chicago court, David Coleman Headley, a co-conspirator in the case, had said he was “motivated” by Saeed to carry out a jihad. The JuD chief and the Lashkar-e-Taiba co-founder had told him that the satisfaction of one second of “jihad equalled 100 years of worship.”
Saeed was responsible for the terror attack on Mumbai on 26/11.
Deputy attorney general Naseem Kashmiri, in a written reply submitted on behalf of foreign ministry to Justice Umar Ata Bandial of the Lahore high court, said: “The government is defending the ISI before the US court being an institute of the government while the JuD or its chief are not part of the government.”
“Therefore, the government cannot provide legal assistance to him or his organisation,” the reply said.
After examining the government’s response, the judge asked Saeed’s counsel A K Dogar to present the law under which the court could direct the government to defend a private individual in a US court.
Dogar sought time to prepare his arguments and the court adjourned the matter till June 30.
The lawsuit was filed in a Brooklyn court last year by relatives of US nationals Rabbi Gabriel Noah Holtzberg and his wife Rivka, who were among the 166 people killed in the Mumbai attacks.
The US court had issued summons to Saeed, the current and a former head of the Inter-Services Intelligence agency and several other persons who were named in the lawsuit.
The lawsuit accuses Lashkar-e-Taiba founder Hafiz Saeed, commanders Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi, Azam Cheema and Sajid Majid, former ISI chief Nadeem Taj, incumbent head Lt Gen Ahmed Shuja Pasha and two others of providing material support for the Mumbai attacks.
For each of nine claims, the plaintiffs have sought damages of USD 75,000.
Saeed contended that he is the head of the JuD and had no links with LeT.
He contended that the government should defend him in the lawsuit in the same manner that it is protecting the ISI chief and other officials.
Source: The Times of India
lots of conspiracy theories have surfaced since the mumbai attacks. But if hafiz saeed was involved in terrorist activities then he should be punished and the pakistani government has taken a bold step by not participating in legal matters.
For my part, whatever India had faced in Bombay attacks were simply the response of what the India has been doing in Kashmir. India must stop killing the Kashmirs people to avoid such reactions in the future.