Hafiz Saeed indicted in terror funding case; Is this Pakistan’s new gameplay to sneak out from FATF radar?

New Delhi, December 11: However hard they tried to safeguard him, all efforts went in vain. In a latest, the head of the Pakistan-based terrorist organisation, Lashkar-e-Toiba group, Hafiz Saeed, has been charged with terror financing by a Pakistani court. The charges were read as Saeed was present in the court. The indictment comes ahead of a meeting of global terror funding watchdog FATF (Financial Action Task Force) in February to decide whether to blacklist Pakistan on its failure to curb terror financing. But the real question still remains unanswered, will Pakistan really take action against him or is this another gameplay to sway out of the FATF radar.

 

Hafiz Saeed, the mastermind of the 2008 Mumbai terror attack, indicted by the Pakistan court comes as a major victory for India. India has been demanding that Saeed be brought to justice but Pakistan has been seen as dragging its feet on the matter till now. India had said last week that it was aware that the mastermind of the Mumbai terror attack was "roaming freely" and enjoying "Pakistan's hospitality".

Indian foreign ministry spokesperson Raveesh Kumar said in New Delhi on Friday India had shared all the evidence with Pakistan and it was Islamabad's responsibility "to take action" against the perpetrators of the attack. Pakistan's Anti-Terrorism Court (ATC) then fixed December 11 as date for framing the charges against Saeed and other co-accused Malik Zafar Iqbal. It was in July, ahead of the October FATF warning that Pakistan had time till February to clean up its act, that the Counter Terrorism Department (CTD) of Pakistan's Punjab police registered 23 FIRs (First Information Reports) against Saeed and his accomplices on the charges of "terror financing" in different cities of Punjab province. He was later arrested and lodged at the Kot Lakhpat jail.

The cases were then registered in Lahore, Gujranwala and Multan for collection of funds for terror financing through assets made and held in the names of trusts or non-profit organisations (NPO), including Al-Anfaal Trust, Dawatul Irshad Trust and Muaz Bin Jabal Trust, leading to the indictment on Wednesday.