New York:
The US Government has informed a New York court that the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) and its former director generals "enjoy immunity" in the case related to 26/11 filed by the relatives of victims of the Mumbai terror attack and asked Pakistan to dismantle Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) and support India's efforts to counter terrorist threat.
"In the view of the United States, the ISI is entitled to immunity because it is part of a foreign state within the meaning of the FSIA (Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act)," Stuart Delery, the Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General told a federal court in New York on December 17 in a submission on a case filed by relatives and family members of the American victims of the Mumbai terrorist attacks.
"Furthermore, the Department of State has determined that former Director Generals Ahmed Shuja Pasha and Nadeem Taj are immune because plaintiffs' allegations relate to acts that these defendants allegedly took in their official capacities as directors of an entity that is undeniably a fundamental part of the Government of Pakistan," Delery said in his 12-page affidavit.
"Because foreign sovereign immunity and foreign official immunity provide an adequate basis upon which to dispose of this case with respect to the ISI and former Directors General Pasha and Taj, the United States takes no position on the political question doctrine issues that are also presented in this case," the affidavit says in its footnote in response to the court case filed by American survivors of the Mumbai terrorist attack.
Claiming that the ISI of Pakistan was involved in the planning and execution of the Mumbai terrorist attack, these American survivor of 26/11 and family members of the victims had filed a case against the ISI chiefs, Ahmed Shuja Pasha, Nadeem Taj and its other officials, besides LeT leaders, Mohammed Hafiz Saeed; Zaki ur Rahman, Sajid Mir and Azam Cheema.
On 26 November, 2008 in Mumbai, 166 people, including six Americans, were killed and 308 others wounded in a coordinated terror attack.