Pakistan Court Drops Charges Against Lashkar-e-Taiba Founder - NYTimes.com

Image by Truthout.org via Flickr

By SALMAN MASOOD

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — Criminal charges against Hafiz Muhammad Saeed, the man Indian and Western officials accuse of masterminding the terrorist siege of Mumbai last year, were dismissed Monday by a court in Lahore.

Although Pakistan has been pressed to charge Mr. Saeed with involvement in the Mumbai attacks, Pakistan insists that it lacks enough evidence linking him to the attacks and that the charges dismissed Monday were not directly related to them.

The charges were dismissed for lack of evidence, his lawyer said. It was the second time that Mr. Saeed had been held on lesser charges that did not hold up in court.

Mr. Saeed is the founder of the banned militant group Lashkar-e-Taiba, 10 of whose members killed 163 people in a rampage in Mumbai in November.

Seven other members — including the man Pakistan says actually masterminded the Mumbai attacks, Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi — are on trial in Rawalpindi, the garrison city adjacent to Islamabad, the capital.

India has given Pakistan evidence, based on its intelligence and the testimony of the sole surviving gunman, that it says showed that Mr. Saeed provided detailed instructions to the militants who carried out the attack. But Pakistan says there is not enough evidence to charge him.

This weekend, Interior Minister Rehman Malik said Pakistan would not “take any dictation from India” regarding Mr. Saeed.

In the case dismissed Monday, Mr. Saeed was accused of using inflammatory language criticizing Pakistan, which falls under an antiterrorism statute, in September at a gathering in Punjab Province. He was also accused of appealing for funds for a banned group. Mr. Saeed currently leads Jamat-ud-Dawa, an Islamic charity widely viewed as a front for Lashkar-e-Taiba.

His lawyer, A. K. Dogar, said he had argued that the government had not banned Jamat-ud-Dawa and therefore it was legal to solicit donations for it. “The court accepted my contention,” he was quoted by news media as saying outside the court.

Mr. Saeed was placed under house arrest last month. But the step was seen as a gesture to placate international criticism over the slow pace of the trial against the seven militants.

Mr. Saeed, a cleric who fought against the Soviets in Afghanistan in the 1980s, formed Lashkar-e-Taiba, vowing to free the disputed Himalayan region of Kashmir, which is claimed by both India and Pakistan.

Lashkar-e-Taiba has enjoyed the support of the Pakistani intelligence agencies in the past and is often described in Pakistan as the military’s fifth column.