Hafiz Saeed was arrested last year and is serving his sentence in Kot Lakhpat Prison in Lahore. (File)
Lahore:
A Pakistani counterterrorism court on Wednesday sentenced 32 years in prison to the terrorist of the Mumbai terrorist group Jamaat-ud-Dawah (JuD), the mastermind of the Mumbai attack, in two terrorist financing cases.
The Anti-Terrorism Tribunal (ATC) also convicted two other JuD terrorists, including Saeed’s brother-in-law, in terrorist financing cases.
“ATC judge Ijaz Ahmad Buttar has imposed 32 years imprisonment on Yahya Mujahid of JuD in two FIRs. Professor Zafar Iqbal and Professor Hafiz Abdul Rehman Makki (Saeed’s brother-in-law) were sentenced to 16 years and one year in prison in two cases, “a court official told PTI.
He said the two other JuD terrorists – Abdul Salam bin Muhammad and Luqman Shah – had been charged in other terrorist financing cases.
The court ordered the prosecution to present its witnesses on November 16.
The suspects were presented to the court in high security and the media were not allowed to enter the court premises during the proceedings.
Last week, ATC Lahore convicted Hafiz Abdul Rehman Makki, Zafar Iqbal and Muhammad Ashraf of JuD in two more terrorism financing cases registered by the Counter Terrorism Department (CTD) of the Punjab Police.
Zafar Iqbal and Muhammad Ashraf were sentenced to collective imprisonment of 16 years each under different articles of the anti-terrorism law. Makki was sentenced to one year in prison in a case with a fine of 170,000 rupees.
In September last year, ATC Lahore imposed more than 16 years ‘imprisonment on Professor Zafar Iqbal and Hafiz Abdus Salam bin Muhammad and one and a half years’ imprisonment on Makki in a terrorist financing case.
In February last year, Saeed was sentenced to 11 years in prison for terrorist financing by an ATC in Lahore.
ATC sentenced Saeed and his close associate Zafar Iqbal to five and a half years each in two cases. A total sentence of 11 years will be executed simultaneously. Saeed is serving his sentence in Kot Lakhpat prison in Lahore. He was arrested in July of last year.
The Punjab Police CTD had registered 23 FIRs against Saeed and his accomplices for terrorist financing in various towns in the province.
The JuD, led by Saeed, is the front organization of Lashkar-e-Taiba, responsible for the 2008 Mumbai attack that killed 166 people, including six Americans.
The United States has named Saeed a Specially Designated Global Terrorist, and the United States, since 2012, has offered a reward of $ 10 million for information that brings Saeed to justice.
He was listed as a terrorist under UN Security Council Resolution 1267 in December 2008.
