ATC indicts JuD chief Hafiz Saeed in terror financing case.

ISLAMABAD -- An anti-terrorism court in Lahore on Wednesday indicted Hafiz Saeed, the chief of the proscribed Jamaatud Dawa (JuD), and four other JuD leaders who were booked in July for offences pertaining to terror financing.

Saeed, along with the others, was presented before the court today under strict security protocol.

During the proceedings, Saeed's lawyer presented arguments against the indictment.

After filing charges, the court summoned the prosecution's witnesses. ATC-I judge Malik Arshad Bhutta, who heard the case, adjourned proceedings until tomorrow.

On Saturday, the court had delayed the indictment owing to unavailability of one of the suspects in a case registered by the Counterterrorism Department (CTD) on charges of terror financing.

The JuD leaders deny allegations against them as being baseless and a result of international pressure on the Pakistan government. They claim that they have been charged in cases by wrongly attributing them as leaders of the banned Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT).

They plead it was an admitted fact supported by superior courts' decisions that they had already quit the LeT before the organisation was proscribed in 2002. They argue the cases against them have been made on the basis of a link to defunct Al-Nifal Trust which, they...