Saeed serves legal notices on journos;seeks 100mn as damages

Lahore, May 16: LeT founder

has served legal notices on two Pakistani journalists for allegedly concocting a report about his secret meeting with US Ambassador Cameron Munter, seeking Rs 100 million as damages. The notices were served on columnist Nazir Naji and reporter Amir Mir by Saeed's lawyer AK Dogar.

The notices contended that Naji's column in the Urdu daily Jang on May 9 and Mir's report in the Asia Times Online website on May 12 were aimed at tarnishing Saeed's image.

Dogar said Saeed did not want to meet an envoy of the country that he claims is the "murderer of millions of Muslims and an enemy of Pakistan."

He said Saeed would file a criminal case against both journalists who tried to defame him in Pakistan and abroad.

Both journalists were bound to reply to the notice seeking Rs 100 million as damages within 14 days, failing which legal proceedings would begin against them, Dogar claimed.

The US embassy recently denied media reports of a secret meeting between Saeed and the Ambassador.

Naji wrote in his column that after the US announced a bounty of 10 million dollars for Saeed, "some extremists elements" arranged a secret meeting between the LeT founder and Munter.

Naji further claimed that Saeed and Munter explained their points of view at the meeting.

After the meeting, Naji wrote, Saeed was "satisfied" and resumed taking part in public activities openly as he had been given some sort of undertaking by the US envoy.

Mir, a reporter for The News daily of the Jang group, picked up Naji's column and reproduced it on the Asia Times Online website on May 12.

"We want legal action against Naji and Mir for writing unfounded, baseless and malicious pieces against a respectable citizen of Pakistan," Dogar claimed.

US officials have described Saeed as a key suspect in the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks.

Saeed was briefly detained after the attacks before being freed on the orders of the Lahore high court.

Pakistan claims that India has not provided sufficient evidence to prosecute Saeed.

PTI