Ahead of FATF plenary, Pakistan court convicts Hafiz Saeed for terror funding

A court in Pakistan on Thursday sentenced radical cleric, Hafiz Saeed, to imprisonment for 11 years after convicting him for financing terrorist outfits in two separate cases.

Saeed, the founder of the terrorist organization Lashkar-e-Tayyiba (LeT), is already incarcerated in a jail in Pakistan since July 17, 2019. He will have to spend altogether five years and six months behind bars, as the sentences passed in the two cases will run concurrently.

He has been convicted by an Anti-Terrorism Court in Pakistan at a time, even as Prime Minister Imran Khan's government in Islamabad has stepped up lobbying with the United States, China and others to get the nation out of the “grey list” of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF).

The FATF will next week re-asses the steps taken by the Pakistan Government to crack down on the fronts of the terrorist organizations. The inter-governmental organization had put Pakistan on its “grey list” in 2018 for its slack legal and administrative mechanism, which was found to be inadequate to detect and stop the illicit flow of funds to terrorist organizations.

Saeed heads the LeT's front Jamat-ud-Dawa (JuD). New Delhi suspects the radical cleric to be the mastermind of the several terror attacks in India, including the November 26-28, 2008 terror attack in Mumbai.

He was designated by United Nations Security Council (UNSC) as an “individual” linked to Al Qaeda and Taliban on December 10, 2008 – just days after the 26/11 terror attacks. The US Government too had announced a $ 10 million bounty on him in April 2012. He, however, was allowed, not only to live free in Pakistan but also to regularly spew venom against India.

Saeed was placed under house arrest several times in the past 10 years but was always set free after a few months.

It was after the FATF put Pakistan on its “Grey List”, Khan Government launched a crackdown on the fronts and conduits of funds for the terrorist outfits.

Saeed was arrested by the officials of the Counter-Terrorism Department of Punjab province of Pakistan on July 27. He was arrested on his way from Lahore to Gujranwala in the neighboring country. As many as 23 cases were registered against him and his 12 other aides for alleged involvement in mobilizing and channeling funds to support the menace of terrorism. He was granted bail by an Anti-Terrorism Court but was arrested in connection with another case on July 17, 2019.