The Lahore High Court (LHC) here on Tuesday sought reply from the federal government in a petition of Jamatud Dawa Chief Hafiz Muhammad Saeed seeking directions for the government to defend him before an US court for being a citizen of Pakistan.
The US Court has issued summons to him, ISI incumbent chief and other officials on a lawsuit filed by relatives of US nationals killed in Mumbai attacks. The court directed a deputy attorney general to appear before the court on March 29 after obtaining reply from the government.
US nationals Rabbi Gabriel Noah Holtzberg and his wife Rivka were killed by militants in Mumbai attacks. Their son Moshe was saved and he along with other persons filed nine claims against banned outfit Lashkar-e-Tayyaba (LeT) of Hafiz Muhammad Saeed, Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi, Azam Cheema and Sajid Majid as well as the ISI, its former chief Nadeem Taj and incumbent head, Lieutenant General Ahmed Shuja Pasha and two people who it alleges were part of the ISI, Major Iqbal and Major Sameer Ali.
They were accused of providing material support for the 26/11 Mumbai attacks. For each of the claims, the plaintiffs have sought damages of 75,000 US dollars. Hafiz Saeed through his counsel A K Dogar pleaded that he is the head of Jamatud Dawa, a charitable organisation and has no link with Lashkar-e-Tayyaba. He said the government had detained him in 2009 and a full bench of LHC had ordered it to release him, observing that there was no evidence that he (Saeed) had any links with al Qaeda or any terrorist organisation.
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