By IANS,
Islamabad : The Pakistani government has presented evidence to the Lahore High Court linking the banned Jamaat-ud-Dawa (JuD) of terror mastermind Hafiz Saeed to Al Qaida, a media report Saturday said.
Attorney Latif Khosa told the court during an in-camera hearing Saturday “that JuD is linked to Al-Qaeda, adding one culprit involved in Mumbai attacks is said to have links with JuD”, Geo TV said.
Saeed is the founder of the Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) terror group that India blames for the Nov 26-29, 2008 Mumbai terror attacks. The LeT had morphed into the JuD after the Pakistani government banned it under international pressure in the wake of the Dec 13, 2001 attack on the Indian parliament that New Delhi blamed on the terror group.
Ajmal Amir Kasab, the lone gunman captured alive during the Mumbai mayhem, has admitted to being a Pakistani national and to being trained by the LeT for the Mumbai attacks.
Khosa “said that the documents are related to national security; therefore he has presented them in closed session of the court,” Geo TV reported, adding: “According to judicial sources, the court is mulling over the documents.”
The Punjab provincial government also “presented the secret documents about Hafiz Saeed before the court, which is hearing the JuD leader’s plea against his house arrest.
Saeed’s counsel A.K. Dogar said the documents should be presented in open court in Saeed’s presence. Without ruling on this, the court adjourned the hearing till Monday.
Saeed was detained last December after the United Nations declared Jamaat-ud-Dawa (JuD), a frontal organisation of the LeT, as a terrorist group.
Saeed was originally detained for one month and this has been successively extended. On May 5, his detention was extended by 60 days.
After UN action, the authorities arrested some 40 JuD members and closed dozens of its offices and relief units in the country.
India had in January handed over a dossier to Pakistan linking the LeT and some Pakistani nationals to the Mumbai carnage that claimed the lives of over 170 people, including 26 foreigners.
In February, Pakistan admitted that part of the Mumbai conspiracy was planned in this country and also submitted a list of 30 questions on the Indian dossier of the evidence on Mumbai attack.
India replied to this in March. Pakistan then sought another set of clarifications that India has provided.
Also in December 2008, Pakistani authorities arrested LeT commander Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi after India handed over to the FBI intercepts of telephone conversations between him and the Mumbai attackers.
The FBI concluded that the intercepts were genuine and that Lakhvi was the handler of the Mumbai attackers.
Four of Lakhvi’s associates – Zarar Shah, Abu al-Qama, Hammad Amin Saddiq and Shahid Jameel Riaz – have also been jailed.