Mumbai attack mastermind sentenced to 15 years in jail

A Pakistani court sentenced Mumbai attack mastermind Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi to 15 years in prison in a terror-financing case, news agency PTI reports. The United Nations-proscribed LeT commander was arrested by the Counter-Terrorism Department (CTD) of Punjab province on Saturday. The 61-year-old was on bail since 2015 in the Mumbai attack case.

“The Anti-Terrorism Court (ATC) Lahore convicted Lakhvi for commission of offences of terrorism financing in a case registered by the CTD for 15 years under different section of the Anti-Terrorism Act 1997,” a court official told PTI after the hearing.

Judge Ejaz Ahmad Buttar sentenced the accused to five years of rigorous imprisonment each on three counts with a fine of PKR 100,000 each on three counts.

“In default of payment of fine, he will have to undergo an imprisonment of six months each on three counts. He has been sent to prison to serve the sentences,” the official said.

Lakhvi pleaded before the court that he was “falsely implicated” in this case.

The LeT commander was accused of running a dispensary and using funds collected for terrorism financing.

“He and others also collected funds from this dispensary and used these funds for further terrorism financing. He also used these funds for personal expenses,” the CTD said.

Interestingly, Lakhvi was presented before the Lahore ATC on Friday and was convicted the same day in the terror-financing case registered against him some time ago.

The court was told that Lakhvi, a resident of Renal Khurd Okara district of Punjab, was living in Islamabad before his arrest in this case.

Lakhvi was designated as a global terrorist by the UN in December 2008 for being associated with LeT and al-Qaeda and for “participating in the financing, planning, facilitating, preparing or perpetrating of acts by, in conjunction with, under the name of, on behalf or in support of” both the entities.

Proscribed terrorists and entities are subject to an assets freeze, wherein all states are required to freeze funds and other financial assets or economic resources of designated individuals and entities, a travel ban that prevents the entry into or transit through nations’ territories by the designated individuals and an arms embargo.

Last month, the UN Security Council’s 1267 Al Qaeda Sanctions Committee allowed for a monthly payment of Pakistani Rupee 1.5 lakh for Lakhvi to meet his personal expenses.

The permission was granted 10 days before his arrest. Lakhvi has named his son Hafizur Rehman and brother Saadat Bashir Waheed who would send him PKR 90,000 and PKR 60,000 respectively in his bank account. He said that his son and brother both have bank accounts in the same branch.

The LeT, led by Jamat-ud-Dawa (JuD) chief Hafiz Saeed, is responsible for carrying out the 2008 Mumbai attack that killed 166 people, including six Americans.

The global terror financing watchdog Financial Action Task Force (FATF) is instrumental in pushing Pakistan to take measures against terrorists roaming freely in Pakistan and using its territory to carry out attacks in India and elsewhere.

The Paris-based FATF placed Pakistan on the Grey List in June 2018 and asked Islamabad to implement a plan of action to curb money laundering and terror financing by the end of 2019 but the deadline was extended later on due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

ATC Lahore had sentenced Saeed to collective imprisonment of 36 years in terror finance cases.

He has been in Kot Lakhpat jail in Lahore since July 2019. There are reports that he is given a ‘VIP protocol’ in jail.

The UN has named Saeed as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist, and the US, since 2012, has offered a USD 10 million reward for information that brings Saeed to justice.