ATC indicts Hafiz Saeed, others in terror financing case

LAHORE: An Anti-terrorism court on Friday indicted the Chief of the banned Jamaatud Dawa (JD), Hafiz Saeed, and other JD leaders in another terror financing case registered against them by the Counterterrorism Department Gujranwala.

The JD leadership is facing more than two dozen cases related to terror financing and money laundering, registered in five cities of the province. All the cases have been clubbed before Lahore anti-terrorism courts due to security concerns.

Officials produced Hafiz Saeed and others before the ATC judge regarding proceedings of FIR NO 30/2019 CTD Gujranwala. Saeed and others refused to accept charges leveled against them in the FIR. After which the court framed charges against JD leaders and summoned prosecution witnesses on December 21 (today). In another case of terror financing against JD leaders, the court has recorded statement of a prosecution witness and adjourned the hearing till today. It is pertinent to mention here that the trial of terror financing cases against JD leaders will take place on a daily basis.

As per case details, on July 3, the top 13 leaders of the JD were booked in two dozen cases for terror financing and money laundering under the Anti-Terrorism Act (ATA) 1997. The Counterterrorism Department (CTD), which registered the cases in five cities of Punjab, declared that the JD was financing terrorism from the massive funds collected through non-profit organisations and trusts including Al-Anfaal Trust, Dawatul Irshad Trust, Muaz Bin Jabal Trust, etc. Furthermore, the CTD during detailed investigations found that they had links with the JD and its top leadership, accused of financing terrorism by building huge assets/properties from the collected funds in Pakistan. These non-profit organisations were banned in April.

Later, on July 17, Hafiz Saeed was arrested from Gujranwala on charges of terror financing by the Punjab CTD. He was sent to prison on judicial remand after the CTD presented him before a Gujranwala ATC.

Besides the top JD leaders, Malik Zafar Iqbal, Ameer Hamza, Mohammad Yahya Aziz, Mohammad Naeem, Mohsin Bilal, Abdul Raqeeb, Dr Ahmad Daud, Dr Muhammad Ayub, Abdullah Ubaid, Mohammad Ali and Abdul Ghaffar were booked in the cases.

However, the JD leaders claim that they have been nominated in the cases by wrongly attributing them as leaders of the banned Lashkar-e-Taiba (LT). As per counsel of the JD leaders, his clients had quit the LT before the organisation was banned in 2002. The counsel argued that the cases against his clients have been made on the basis of a link to defunct Al-Nifal Trust which was formed to construct mosques in the country.