Pakistan's largest bank Habib Bank Limited (HBL) aided, abetted Al Qaeda

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan's largest bank, Habib Bank Limited (HBL), faces secondary liabilities in a terror financing case in the US in which the plaintiffs had alleged that it aided and abetted Al Qaeda terrorism and joined a conspiracy to launch attacks that killed or injured 370 people, a media report said on Thursday.

Judge Lorna G. Schofield observed that bank faces the liabilities under the Justice Against Sponsors of Terrorism Act as a party that "aids and abets, by knowingly providing substantial assistance, or who conspires with the person who committed such an act of international terrorism", Dawn news quoted the Bloomberg report as saying.

The Bloomberg report quoted the judge as saying that the plaintiffs in three consolidated cases "sufficiently" alleged that the attacks were planned or authorised by a 'Foreign Terrorist Organisation' such as the Al Qaeda or syndicates Lashkar-e-Taiba, Jaish-e-Mohammad, the Afghan Taliban, including the Haqqani Network, and the Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan.

"The plaintiffs sufficiently allege that the bank knew its customers were integral to al-Qaeda's overall campaign of terrorism, carried out directly and by proxy, which is sufficient to allege general awareness.

"The complaints also show that the bank knowingly and substantially helped al-Qaeda and its proxies evade sanctions and engage in terrorist acts, which satisfies the eknowing assistance' requirement," the judge said. (IANS)

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