Pak court summons counter-terror official on Hafiz's petition

Lahore: A Pakistani court on Tuesday summoned an official of the Counter Terrorism Department (CTD) of Punjab police on a petition filed by Mumbai attack mastermind and JuD chief Hafiz Saeed challenging his arrest in the terror financing cases.

The Lahore High Court held the hearing after Saeed and 67 other leaders of Jammat-ud-Dawah (JuD) and Falah-i-Insaniat (FIF) filed a fresh petition removing the objection of the Registrar office.

The LHC Registrar office earlier had raised an objection on the petition of Saeed and others that they attached pictures of mosques with it (petition) which were built on the occupied land in order to give it a "religious colour".

"A two-member LHC bench comprising Justice Mazahir Ali Naqvi and Justice Mushtaq Ahmed on Tuesday issued the notice to the CTD to file a reply on Saeed and others' petition within two

week. The court also summoned a CTD official concerned after two weeks to explain about the arrest of Saeed and others in terror financing," a court official told PTI after the hearing.

The petitioners' counsel Advocate A K Dogar gave arguments in the court. Dogar said Saeed has no link with Al-Qaeda or any other terrorist organisation. "Hafiz Saeed also has no connection with the banned Lashkar-e-Taiba," he said.

Dogar further said the Indian lobby has been propagating against his client as he was not involved in the deadly Mumbai attacks.

Saeed-led JuD is believed to be the front organisation for the LeT which was responsible for carrying out the 2008 Mumbai attacks that killed 166 people. He was listed under the UN Security Council Resolution 1267 in December 2008.

He was arrested on July 17 in a terror financing cases. He is kept at Lahore's Kot Lakhpat jail in high security.