Bowing to global pressure to curb terror activities, Pakistan on Wednesday booked Mumbai terror attack mastermind and Jamaat-ud-Dawa chief Hafiz Saeed and his 12 accomplices for “terrorism financing” in 23 cases.
Islamabad’s Counter-Terrorism Department (CTD) said Saeed and his aides used five trusts to “raise funds for terrorism financing”.
The people named in the cases include Hafiz Saeed, his brother-in-law Abdul Rehman Makki, Ameer Hamza and Muhammad Yahya Aziz.
The cases have been registered in Lahore, Gujranwala and Multan for collection of funds for terrorism financing through assets made and held in the names of trusts, including Al-Anfaal, Dawat ul Irshad and Muaz Bin Jabal.
The counter-terrorism department said investigations have been launched into matters of JuD , LeT and FIF regarding their holding and use of trusts to raise funds for terrorism financing.
“They made these assets from funds of terrorism financing. They held and used these assets to raise more funds for further terrorism financing. They will be prosecuted in Anti Terrorism Courts for commission of these offences,” it said.
The move comes ahead of Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan’s five-day visit to the United States from July 20 during which he is to hold talks with President Donald Trump.
In the recently concluded G20 Summit, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had urged BRICS leaders to fight terrorism and put an end to the financing of terror outfits.
Earlier in February, following diplomatic pressure after the Pulwama terror attack, Pakistan had banned Saeed’s terror outfit Jamaat-ud-Dawa (JuD) and its front Falah-e-Insaniat Foundation (FIF).
Earlier, the two terror outfits were kept on the watch-list of Pakistan’s Interior Ministry.
The JuD is the front organisation for the Lashkar-e-Taiba or LeT, which is responsible for carrying out the Mumbai terror attack that killed 166 people. It has been declared as a foreign terrorist organisation by the US in June 2014.
The US Department of the Treasury has designated Hafiz Saeed as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist, and the United States, since 2012, has offered a USD 10 million reward for information that brings Hafiz Saeed to justice.
Hafiz Saeed was listed under UN Security Council Resolution 1267 in December 2008. He was released from house arrest in Pakistan in November 2017.