26/11 Mastermind Hafiz Saeed Gets 11 Years in Jail for Terror Financing

The mastermind of the Mumbai attack or 26/11 Hafiz Saeed is finally convicted by a Pakistan court and has been sent to jail for eleven years. Hafiz Saeed, the founder of the terror outfit Lashkar-e-Taiba and chief of the Jamaat-ud-Dawa, was found guilty in two terror financing cases. 

In both cases, the anti-terrorism court has sentenced him to five and a half years of imprisonment each and imposed a fine of Rs 15,000. The jail terms will run concurrently in both the cases.

His lawyer Imran Gill has told AFP, “Hafiz Saeed was found guilty of being part of a banned terrorist outfit and for having illegal property”.

Abdul Rauf Watto, the deputy prosecutor general said, “However as the court resumed hearing in four other terror financing cases against Saeed and others on Wednesday, Judge Bhutta announced the verdict in the two already completed cases handing down a total 11 years imprisonment to Saeed and Iqbal.”

The decision of the court came four days ahead of a crucial meeting of the Financial Action Task Force in Paris where Pakistan will present its case to get itself off the grey list.

Though he faces 23 terror cases against him in Pakistan and despite India’s providing proofs of terror cases against him, he was allowed to roam freely within Pakistan and address anti-India rallies with impunity.

After sustained international pressure, now Pakistan is bound to file terror charges against Hafiz Saeed. In a First Information Report filed by the Counter Terrorism Department of Pakistan’s Punjab Police, Saeed was charged with multiple offences of terror financing and money laundering.

In the year 2017, the Pakistan government has detained Hafiz Saeed and his four of his associates under terror laws. But they were released as the Judicial Review Board of Punjab refused to keep them in confinement.

Hafiz Saeed was again arrested in July last year, in the terror financing cases. Since then he was lodged at the Lahore’s Kot Lakhpat jail amidst high security along with two of his associates.

The Financial Action Task Force in October last year decided to keep Pakistan on its ‘Grey’ list as it failed to curb funneling of funds to the terror groups such as Lashkar-e-Taiba, Jaish-e-Mohammad and others. After April, Pakistan may move to a list of blacklisted countries, which faces severe economic sanctions, such as Iran. The UN Security Council backs the FATF.

Hafiz Saeed has been already designated as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist by the US Department of the Treasury, while the US has offered a USD 10 million reward for information that brings Saeed to justice since 2012. In December 2008, he was first listed under the UN Security Council Resolution 1267. 

The United Nations Security Council (UNSC) has banned Hafiz Saeed as an International terrorist after the 26/11 Mumbai attacks in the year 2008 in which 166 people were killed including six Americans. Hafiz Saeed leads Jamaat-ud-Dawa, which is the frontal organisation for the Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT).