The move is significant for the legal proceedings as India seeks to place on record that the accused was given sufficient opportunity to appear before a court and present their side. The Indian government will send court summons for Pakistan-based terrorist leader Hafiz Saeed to Islamabad via diplomatic channels in the Pahalgam terror attack case of 2025, sources have told NDTV.
Next steps would include declaring him a Proclaimed Offender. Summons for Saeed will be shared with Pakistan’s foreign ministry via the Indian Ministry of External Affairs. Indian law permits investigation, trial, or judgment against a PO in their absence, as per Section 356 of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita. The National Investigation Agency (NIA) has named Hafiz Saeed as an accused in the conspiracy case related to the Pahalgam terror attack that killed 27 people at the tourist spot in Jammu and Kashmir.
Following the non-bailable warrant, the process of officially serving court-issued summons in Pakistan is now being set in motion, sources said.
The police, represented by special public prosecutor Ujjwal Nikam, submitted on Friday an interim report on the proclamation order issued in July this year against the absconding accused for initiating the process for trial in absentia. Meanwhile, Mumbai Police approached the Union Home Ministry to serve the court proclamation orders via Interpol against six absconding accused, including LeT founders Hafiz Saeed and Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi, setting the stage to try them in absentia for their role in the 26/11 terror attacks of 2008.
“We have written to the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) for taking necessary steps in serving the proclamation order, through Interpol, against the accused residing in Pakistan,” Nikam told the special court hearing terror cases, as per news agency PTI. “On August 3, the MHA had acknowledged our request, and sought time for filing a status of the same,” he said.
