LAHORE: An anti-terrorism court on Wednesday indicted Jamaatud Dawa (JuD) chief Hafiz Mohammad Saeed and its leader Prof Zafar Iqbal in one of the cases registered by the Counter Terrorism Department (CTD) on charges of terror financing.

Extraordinary security measures were put in place on the court premises.

Advocates Naseeruddin Nayar and Imran Fazal Gill, representing the two JuD leaders, argued before the court that the prosecution had not presented any evidence to establish its allegations. They said the court should summon the evidence first if it wanted to frame charges against the JuD leaders.

ATC-I Judge Arshad Hussain Bhutta, however, framed charges against the suspects as per the charge sheet read out by special prosecutor Abdul Rauf Wattoo.

Hafiz Saeed and Zafar Iqbal pleaded not guilty and decided to contest the trial.

The judge adjourned the hearing till Dec 12 and directed the prosecution to present its witnesses.

The judge deleted charges from the charge sheet relating to properties in Sahiwal, Khanewal and Daska allegedly used for terror financing. He observed that these properties did not fall within the territorial jurisdiction of Lahore court.

At a previous hearing, the defence counsel had argued that allegations against the JuD leaders were baseless and a result of international pressure on the government. He said the accused had been charged in false cases by wrongly attributing as leaders of the banned Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT).

The counsel argued that it was an admitted fact supported by superior courts’ decisions that the accused had already quit LeT before the organisation was declared proscribed in 2002. They alleged that the CTD had registered the cases without any substantive evidence.

Meanwhile, the Lahore High Court disposed of a petition seeking cancellation of 29 FIRs registered against Hafiz Saeed and other leaders of JuD on charges of using different properties for terror financing.

A two-judge LHC bench headed by Justice Mohammad Qasim Khan directed the petitioner’s counsel to file separate petitions against each FIR.

Malik Zafar Iqbal, secretary of Al-Infal Trust, a subsidiary of JuD, had challenged the cases against 65 leaders and members of the organisation.

Advocate A.K. Dogar, representing the petitioner, contended that the properties in question had never been used for terror financing as there was no tangible evidence on record to support such “bald allegations”.

He said that describing Hafiz Saeed and other leaders of JuD as being leaders of LeT was factually and legally incorrect. He submitted that a full bench of the high court in a case against detention of JuD leaders had already declared in its 2009 judgement that Mr Saeed and others were not members of LeT.

The counsel said the petitioners had never been involved in any activity against the country nor they had links to any terrorist organisation, adding that the allegation about involvement of Hafiz Saeed and other members of the organisation in the Mumbai attacks was nothing but propaganda of Indian lobby.

He argued that the properties mentioned in the FIRs were dedicated to mosques and being used for the last so many years. He requested the court to declare the impugned FIRs unlawful and also declare that the JuD leaders nominated in them had no connection with LeT.

Published in Dawn, December 12th, 2019