An anti-terrorism court in Pakistan has sentenced the mastermind of the 2008 Mumbai attacks to more than 15 years in prison in a terrorism financing case.
“Earlier this month, an anti-terrorism court in Lahore sentenced Sajid Majeed Mir, an activist of the banned Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), to 15 years in prison,” said a senior lawyer associated with terrorism. The financing of Lashkar and Jamaat-ud-Dawa leaders told PTI on Friday.
The Anti-Terrorism Department (CTD) of the Punjab Police, which often issues convictions to suspects in such cases to the media, did not report Mir’s conviction in a terrorism financing case.
Also, since it was a closed-door proceedings in the jail, the media was not allowed.
The lawyer further said that the convict Mir, who is in his mid-40s, is in Kot Lakhpat jail since his arrest this April. He added that the court has also imposed a fine of over Rs 400,000 on the convict.
Earlier it was believed that Mir was dead.
Ahead of the last meeting of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), Pakistan reportedly told the agency that it had arrested and prosecuted Sajid Mir for demanding his removal from the FATF’s ‘grey list’.
Sajid Mir, who has a bounty of USD 5 million, is on India’s most wanted list for his role in the 26/11 Mumbai attacks, in which 166 people were killed.
Mir was called the “Project Manager” of the Mumbai attacks. Mir had reportedly visited India In 2005, fake passport was used in fake name.
The alleged mastermind of Mumbai terror attack and Jamaat-ud-Dawa chief Hafiz Saeed has already been sentenced to 68 years in jail by the Lahore ATC in terrorism financing cases.
The sentences are running concurrently, that is, he will not have to spend many years in prison.
Operation Commander of Mumbai attack Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi has also been sentenced to several years in jail. Both Saeed and Maki are in Lahore’s Kot Lapkhapat Jail.
UN-designated terrorist Saeed, on whom the US has placed a USD 10 million bounty, was arrested in July 2019 on terrorism financing charges.
Saeed-led Jamaat-ud-Dawa is the lead organization for Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), which is responsible for carrying out the 2008 Mumbai attacks, in which six Americans were also killed.
The US Treasury Department has designated Saeed as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist.
The Financial Action Task Force (FATF), a global terror financing watchdog, has been instrumental in prompting Islamabad to act against terrorists roaming freely in Pakistan and using its territory to carry out attacks in India.
The FATF placed Pakistan on the gray list in June 2018 and asked Islamabad to implement an action plan to curb money laundering.
read all breaking news , today’s fresh news watch top videos And live TV Here.