Terror funding case: ATC awards 6-month jail to JuD leaders

LAHORE: The Anti-Terrorism Court (ATC) on Friday, while announcing another judgment in terror financing cases against leaders of the banned organisation Jamaatud Dawa (JuD), awarded six-month jail term each to Professor Zafar Iqbal and Yahyah Mujahid and Abdul Rehman Makki.

Earlier, the ATC had convicted Chief of the banned Jamaatud Dawa Hafiz Muhammad Saeed and five other JuD leaders in another case of terror financing and terrorism.

The court has convicted these JuD leaders in a case registered by Counter Terrorism Department. (CTD) According to details, on July 3, 2019, the top 13 leaders of the JuD were booked in multiple 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, declared that the JuD was financing terrorism from the 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 was accused of financing terrorism by building huge assets and properties from the collected funds in Pakistan. These non-profit organisations were banned in April 2019. Later, on July 17, Hafiz Saeed was arrested from Gujranwala on charges of terror financing by the Punjab CTD. Besides, the top JuD 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.

However, the JuD leaders claim that they have been nominated in the cases by wrongly attributing them as leaders of the banned Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT). According to the counsel of the JuD leaders, his clients had quit the LeT 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-Anfaal Trust which was formed to construct mosques in the country.