ISLAMABAD: Pakistan will “strongly contest” two US lawsuits that link its spy chief and his agency to the deadly 2008 attacks in Mumbai, the government said Thursday. The statement shows how sensitive Pakistan is to claims that its agents were involved in the assault that killed 166 people in India. It appeared that the goal of the tough Pakistani stance was to get the lawsuits dismissed. The suits have already caused tensions between the US and Pakistan. The US depends on Pakistani cooperation to fight Taliban fighters in its border area with Afghanistan, and friction over other issues could harm the alliance. The lawsuits were filed in New York in November. The plaintiffs include relatives of victims in the Mumbai attacks. The bloody, coordinated attacks on several sites in Mumbai, including luxury hotels, a cafe, a train station and a Jewish center, have been blamed on the Pakistan-based militant group Lashkar-e-Taiba, a defendant in the suits. The 60-hour siege by 10 militants, which has been called India's 9/11, paralyzed India's financial capital and deeply wounded the national psyche. The court papers repeat long-standing allegations that Pakistani Inter-Services Intelligence has “nurtured and used international terrorist groups,” including Lashkar. “Defendant ISI provided critical planning, material support, control and coordination of the attacks,” the lawsuits allege, pressing wrongful death and additional claims against the ISI, its chief Gen. Ahmed Shuja Pasha and others. Prime Minister Syed Yousaf Raza Gilani has said Pasha cannot be made to testify in a US civil court and that the New York City cases should be dismissed. The foreign ministry's statement Thursday indicated that Pakistan, through its embassy in Washington, will seek to get the lawsuits tossed out. It declared that Pasha, the ISI and other Pakistani officials named will be “fully and properly” defended and noted the prime minister's view against pursuing the court cases. Experts say civil lawsuits such as the ones filed in the Brooklyn federal court rarely succeed beyond being symbolic. A US court could find that Pasha is protected by sovereign immunity. International defendants who aren't protected often don't respond to summonses and, as a result, never enter a US courthouse. Even if a judge orders damages, the chances of collecting are slim. Sometimes, judges have dismissed cases after the US government indicated its opposition to them on diplomatic grounds.
