Terror financing: Two JuD leaders jailed for over 14 years each

LAHORE: An anti-terrorism court Monday handed down fourteen-and-a-half year jail each to Jamaat-ud-Dawa leaders Zafar Iqbal and Yahya Mujahid in two cases of terror financing.

The court also awarded six-month jail to accused Hafiz Abdul Rehman Makki in the case. Judge Arshad Hussain Bhutta announced the verdict in FIRs 23 and 41 of 2019 under different provisions of the Anti-Terrorism Act 1997, registered by the Sargodha CTD. The three convicts were present in the court when the judge announced the verdict. Earlier, the ATC Lahore had sentenced Zafar Iqbal to 26-year imprisonment in three cases.

On July 3, 2019, top 13 JuD leaders were booked in cases of terror financing and money laundering under the Anti-Terrorism Act (ATA) 1997. The CTD, which registered the cases in five cities of Punjab, said the JuD was financing terrorism from 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 JuD and its top leadership, accused them of financing terrorism by building huge assets and properties from donated funds in Pakistan. The non-profit organisations were banned in April 2019.

On July 17, Hafiz Saeed was arrested from Gujranwala on charges of terror financing by the Punjab CTD. Besides, top JuD leaders including Malik Zafar Iqbal, Ameer Hamza, Mohammad Yahya Aziz, Mohammad Naeem, Mohsin Bilal, Abdul Raqeeb, Dr Ahmad Daud, Dr Muhammad Ayub, Abdullah Ubaid, Mohammad Ali, Yahya Mujahid and Abdul Ghaffar were also booked.

Four cases against Hafiz Saeed have been decided so far. A total of 41 cases have been registered by the CTD against the JuD leaders, out of which 28 have been decided while the rest are pending in ATC courts.

However, the JuD leaders claim that they had been implicated in the cases by wrongly attributing them as leaders of the banned LeT. According to the counsel of the JuD leaders, they had quit the LeT before it was banned in 2002.