- ISLAMABAD: Jamaat-ud-Dawa (JD) chief Hafiz Saeed has refused to recognize the jurisdiction of the New York Eastern US District Court in Brooklyn, which has summoned him in a case brought on by four American Jews claiming damages for the killing of their relatives in the November 2008 Mumbai attacks.
“You have no jurisdiction to call me,” he reportedly said.
Saeed and ISI Director-General Lt. Gen. Ahmad Shuja Pasha have been summoned by the court to appear in a suit moved by Shimon Rosenberg and three other Jews charging the defendants with abetting the attacks in which several foreigners were among the 164 killed. Saeed submitted his reply through his lawyer A.K. Dogar, who called the summons “unwarranted and illegal” on the basis that neither international nor US law allows a US court to expand its jurisdiction to another country.
“We cannot expect justice from any American court, even if it had jurisdiction,” he added.
The lawyer said that his client was a philanthropist and had nothing to do with Lashkar-i-Taiba, which is believed to be behind the attacks. Pasha is in the United States for a meeting with CIA Director Leon Panetta.