INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
Lahore: Mumbai terror attack mastermind and Jamat-ud-Dawa (JuD) chief Hafiz Saeed was on Thursday sentenced to 10 years in jail by an
anti-terrorism court in Pakistan in two more terror financing cases.Saeed, a UN designated terrorist whom the US has placed a USD 10 million
bounty on, was arrested on July 17 last year in the terror financing cases
chief is lodged at Lahore's high-security Kot Lakhpat jail."The Anti-Terrorism Court (ATC) of Lahore on Thursday sentenced four JuD leaders,
including its chief Hafiz Saeed, in two more cases," a court official told PTI.Saeed and his two close aides - Zafar Iqbal and Yahya Mujahid
- have been sentenced to 10 and a half years each, while JuD chief's brother-in-law Abdul Rehman Makki was sentenced to six months
imprisonment."Judge Arshad Hussain Bhutta of ATC Court No
1 heard the case filed by the Counter Terrorism Department in which the verdict has been announced after the statements of witnesses were
decided while the rest are pending in the ATC courts
Four cases have been decided against Saeed so far.Thursday's sentencing comes weeks after Paris-based global money laundering and terrorist
financing watchdog - the Financial Action Task Force ? retained Pakistan on its grey list till February 2021 as Islamabad failed to fulfil
the agency's six key obligations, including failure to take action against two of India's most wanted terrorists -- Saeed and Maulana Masood
that killed 166 people, including six Americans.The US Department of the Treasury has designated Saeed as a Specially Designated Global
He was listed under the UN Security Council Resolution 1267 in December 2008.The FATF had 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
from the International Monetary Fund (IMF), World Bank, Asian Development Bank (ADB) and the European Union, thus further enhancing problems
for the cash-strapped nation.
