LeT leader Lakhvi awarded 15-year jail for financing terrorism

LAHORE: An anti-terrorism court (ATC) Friday awarded 15-year jail term to Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi, a leader of proscribed organisation Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), over charges of terrorism and terror financing.

ATC Judge Aijaz Ahmad Butter also imposed Rs300,000 fine on the convict. In case of default on payment of the fine, the convict would have to undergo further imprisonment. The verdict also directed the Counter-Terrorism Department (CTD) to arrest the co-accused in the case, Abu Anas Mohsin and produce him in the court.

The CTD had booked Lakhvi in case no 26/20, registered at the CTD Lahore station under three different charges of Anti-Terrorism Act (ATA). Lakhvi was accused of running a medical dispensary to collect and disburse funds for financing terrorism. The court awarded five-year jail term to Lakhvi on each charge. Furthermore, it has been learnt that Lakhvi will be shifted to Central Jail Adiala to serve his sentence.

The CTD arrested Lakhvi from Lahore last Saturday. The CTD, after the arrest, issued a statement saying that Lakhvi was running a dispensary in Lahore as a front for financing militant activities.

Lakhvi is alleged to be a leader of the Lashker-e-Taiba that allegedly organised the Mumbai attacks in 2008, killing 166 people. He was detained days after the Mumbai attacks, but released in 2015 by the courts.

Lakhvi was a prominent figure in Hafiz Saeed’s charity Jamaatud Daawa, which is believed to be a front for Lashker-e-Taiba.

According to a UN Security Council sanctions committee, Lakhvi is the chief of operations and military commander of the LeT. Hafiz Saeed, who has been designated a terrorist by the US Justice Department and has a $10 million bounty on his head, is presently serving multiple jail terms after being convicted in several cases in recent months.