Lahore
Mumbai attack mastermind and Lashkar-e-Toiba operations commander Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi was sentenced to 15 years in jail on Friday by a Pakistani anti-terrorism court here in a terror financing case.

UN-proscribed terrorist Lakhvi, 61, who was on bail since 2015 in the Mumbai attack case, was arrested by the Counter-Terrorism Department of Punjab province on Saturday.

“The Anti-Terrorism Court Lahore convicted Lakhvi for commission of offences of terrorism financing in a case registered by the CTD for 15 years under different sections of the Anti-Terrorism Act 1997,” a court official told PTI after the hearing.

Judge Ejaz Ahmad Buttar sentenced Lakhvi to five years of rigorous imprisonment each on three counts with a fine of PKR 1,00,000 each on three counts.“He and others also collected funds from this dispensary and used these funds for further terrorism financing. He also used these funds for personal expenses,” the CTD said.

Interestingly, Lakhvi was presented before the Lahore ATC on Friday and was convicted the same day in the terror financing case registered against him some time ago.

Lakhvi was designated as a global terrorist by the UN in December 2008 for being associated with LeT and al-Qaeda and for “participating in the financing, planning, facilitating, preparing or perpetrating of acts by, in conjunction with, under the name of, on behalf or in support of” both the entities.

Proscribed terrorists and entities are subject to an assets freeze, wherein all states are required to freeze funds and other financial assets or economic resources of designated individuals and entities, a travel ban that prevents the entry into or transit through nations’ territories by the designated individuals and an arms embargo.

Last month, the UN Security Council’s 1267 Al Qaeda Sanctions Committee allowed for a monthly payment of Pakistani Rupee 1.5 lakh for Lakhvi to meet his personal expenses.

The permission was granted 10 days before his arrest. Lakhvi has named his son Hafizur Rehman and brother Saadat Bashir Waheed who would send him PKR 90,000 and PKR 60,000 respectively in his bank account. He said that his son and brother both have the bank accounts in the same branch.

The Paris-based FATF 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 later on due to COVID-19 pandemic.

ATC Lahore had sentenced Saeed for a collective imprisonment of 36 years in terror finance cases.He has been in Kot Lakhpat jail in Lahore since July 2019. There are reports that he is given a ‘VIP protocol’ in jail.