India charges LeT founder Saeed over Kashmir attack
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- India's National Investigation Agency filed charges on Monday against Hafiz Saeed, founder of Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), over a tourist attack in Indian Kashmir last year that killed 26 men.
- New Delhi said the perpetrators were Pakistani nationals backed by Islamabad, while Pakistan denied involvement and sought an independent probe; the attack triggered a conflict between the two countries.
- Indian forces killed three militants last July it identified as Pakistanis involved in the attack, and NIA had charged LeT, its offshoot The Resistance Front (TRF), and six individuals over the incident back in December.
- Saeed is charged in his individual capacity and as chief of both LeT and TRF, with the filing including "details of Pakistan's conspiracy" alongside supporting evidence from scientific investigation and on-ground examination.
- TRF initially claimed responsibility for the attack before reversing course and denying involvement days later.
- Saeed founded LeT around 1990 and is also blamed for the 2008 Mumbai attacks that killed 166 people over three days; he has been held in a Pakistani prison since his 2020 terrorism financing conviction.
Why it matters: The charge formalizes India's allegation that Islamabad backed the tourist attackers, the line New Delhi used to justify last year's military standoff with Pakistan. With Saeed already serving time in Pakistan on terrorism financing convictions, the filing sustains legal and diplomatic pressure on Islamabad, which has publicly rejected any role in the 26-person massacre.
