Pakistani premier says agents cannot be hauled before US court

Dec 23, 2010, 10:35 GMT

Islamabad - Pakistani Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani said Thursday that agents of the country's leading spy agency, Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), could not be forced to appear in a US court.

A New York court in November issued a summons for the current head of the ISI, Lieutenant General Ahmad Shuja Pasha, and a former head, Lieutenant General Nadeem Taj, for their suspected roles in the 2008 terrorist attacks in Mumbai.

'No one can force the ISI to appear in the US court,' Gilani told parliament. 'If ISI is not ready to appear there, no one can force it to do so.'

At least 166 people, including 28 foreigners from 10 countries, were killed in the attack. India has blamed the banned Pakistan-based group Lahkar-e-Tioba (LeT) but did not rule out the involvement of the ISI.

The US court summons was based on a 26-page lawsuit filed last month by an injured American and relatives of four US victims of the Mumbai attacks. The judge requested the defendants appear in person or through counsel next month.

The court also summonsed two other ISI officers as well as the alleged chief of the LeT, Hafiz Saeed, and the suspected mastermind of the attacks Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi.

This week, a Pakistani tribesman filed a lawsuit against the head of the US Central Intelligence Agency in Pakistan, leading Washington to withdraw the agent from the country.

The tribesman sued over the murder of his relatives in a drone attack and also named Defence Secretary Robert Gates and CIA chief Leon Panetta as co-defendants.

American officials suspect that the ISI had a hand in revealing the CIA officer's identity, apparently in retaliation for the New York lawsuit against the ISI officers.

Mistrust is rampant between the intelligence communities of the two countries, who are key partners against Islamist insurgents operating along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border.

The United States suspects Pakistan's intelligence service of at least turning a blind eye to Taliban and al-Qaeda militants operating from bases in Pakistan's tribal region and conducting raids on foreign and Afghan troops across the border.

Pakistan denies the allegations, saying a number of its troops have sacrificed their lives fighting Islamist insurgents along the border since 2001.

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