LeT founder Hafiz Saeed has been convicted by Pakistan’s court under 2 cases of terror funding registered by the Counter-Terrorism Department (CTD) and has been sentenced to Lahore’s Kot Lakhpat jail for 11 years.
Crux of the Matter
Who is Hafiz Saeed? Hafiz Mohammed Saeed is accused of orchestrating the 2008 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks. He is the founder of Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) and chief of Jama’at-ud-Da’wah (JuD). He denies leading the LeT and the Mumbai terror attacks. After the attacks, India had filed a formal complaint to the United Nations to consider Hafiz and LeT associated with terrorism. Due to a lack of extradition treaty between India and Pakistan, India’s continuous requests for handing over Hafiz has not been heeded.
Hafiz Sentenced The anti-terrorism court sentenced Hafiz Saeed and his close aide Zafar Iqbal for 5.5 years and imposed a fine of Rs 15,000 in each of the cases. The Counter-Terrorism Department had registered 23 FIRs against Saeed and his accomplices for the collection of funds for terrorism financing through properties made and held in the names of Non-Profit Organisations including Al-Anfaal Trust, Dawatul Irshad Trust, Muaz Bin Jabal Trust, etc. The court accepted Saeed’s plea to club all six terror financing cases pending against him in the anti-terrorism court of Lahore and gave the verdict on completion of the trial.
Today’s conviction of Hafiz Saeed and his associate is an important step forward – both toward holding LeT accountable for its crimes, and for #Pakistan in meeting its international commitments to combat terrorist financing. — State_SCA (@State_SCA) February 12, 2020
Pakistan’s Rescue Move? The verdict has come just four days ahead of the crucial meeting of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) in Paris where Pakistan is going to present its case to get itself off the grey list and prevent itself from getting blacklisted and facing severe sanctions like Iran. In October 2019 the FATF which is backed by the UNSC had put Pakistan on its ‘Grey’ list for failure to stop funding to terror groups Lashkar-e-Taiba and Jaish-e-Mohammad and had asked Pakistan to take ‘extra measures’ to stop terror financing. The FATF meets in Paris on February 16 to assess Pakistan’s implementation of a 27-point action plan that Pakistan had submitted to FATF and that included action plans on money laundering and terror financing.
Curiopedia
Hafiz Muhammad Saeed is a Pakistani Islamist militant. In April 2012, the United States announced a bounty of $10 million on Saeed for his alleged role in the 2008 Mumbai attacks that killed 164 civilians. He is listed on India’s NIA Most Wanted list and UN-designated terrorist. India has banned his organizations LeT and JuD as terrorist organizations. The United States, the United Kingdom, the European Union, Russia, and Australia have also banned Lashkar-e-Taiba. More Info
The Financial Action Task Force is an intergovernmental organization founded in 1989 on the initiative of the G7 to develop policies to combat money laundering. In 2001 its mandate expanded to include terrorism financing. It monitors progress in implementing the FATF Recommendations through “peer reviews” of member countries. The FATF Secretariat is housed at the OECD headquarters in Paris. The objectives of the FATF are to set standards and promote effective implementation of legal, regulatory and operational measures for combating money laundering, terrorist financing and other related threats to the integrity of the international financial system. More Info
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