Arrest of 26/11 attack mastermind Lakhvi an important step to stop terror funding: US

Three days after the arrest of Mumbai attack mastermind and Lashkar-e-Taiba operations commander Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi in Pakistan, the US has welcomed the move, terming it an “important step” in holding him responsible for supporting and financing terrorism, reports PTI.

Lakhvi was arrested on Saturday in Pakistan on terror financing charges, amidst growing international pressure on Islamabad to bring to justice terrorists roaming free in the country.

In 2008, Mumbai was attacked by 10 members of Lashkar-e-Taiba, killing over 150 people.

The Counter-Terrorism Department (CTD) of Punjab province arrested UN-designated terrorist Lakhvi, who was on bail since 2015 in the Mumbai attack case.

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“We welcome Pakistan’s arrest of terrorist leader Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi as an important step in holding him responsible for his role in supporting terrorism and its financing,” the South and Central Asia Bureau of the State Department said in a tweet.

“We will follow his prosecution and sentencing closely and urge that he be held accountable for his involvement in the Mumbai attacks,” it said on Tuesday.

Lakhvi was designated as a global terrorist by the UN in December 2008 for being associated with Lashkar-e-Taiba (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.

The recent crackdown on terrorists in Pakistan started after global terror financing watchdog Financial Action Task Force (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 COVID-19 pandemic.