Pakistan court indicts 4 close aides of Hafiz Saeed in terror financing cases

Lahore, Sep 16: An anti-terrorism court in Pakistan on Wednesday indicted four top leaders of the banned Jamaat-ud-Dawah (JuD), including the brother-in-law of Mumbai attack mastermind Hafiz Saeed, in four more cases of terror financing.

"Terror financing charges were framed on Hafiz Abdul Rehman Makki (brother-in-law of Saeed), Yahya Mujahid (JuD spokesperson), Zafar Iqbal and Muhammad Ashraf in four more cases,” a court official told PTI after the hearing. The suspects were brought to the ATC-III amid high security from the Kot Lakhpat Jail.

The official said judge Ijaz Ahmad Buttar directed the prosecution to present witnesses on next hearing on Thursday. Last month, the ATC Lahore handed down over 16 years imprisonment to Zafar Iqbal and Hafiz Abdus Salam and one-and-a-half-year sentence to Makki in another terror financing case. In February, Saeed was sentenced to a jail term of 11 years on terror finance charges by the ATC of Lahore.

The court sentenced Saeed and his close aide Zafar Iqbal to five-and-a-half years each in two cases. A total of 11 years sentence will run concurrently. Saeed is serving his term in Lahore's Kot Lakhpat jail. He was arrested in July last year.

The Counterterrorism Department of Punjab police had registered 23 FIRs against Saeed and his accomplices for terror financing in different cities of the province.

Saeed-led JuD is the front organisation for Lashkar-e-Taiba which is responsible for carrying out the 2008 Mumbai attack that killed 166 people, including six Americans.

The US 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. He was listed as a terrorist under the UN Security Council Resolution 1267 in December 2008.