Hafiz Saeed still Pakistan's VIP; terrorist & aides roaming in SUVs despite jail sentence

Mumbai terror attack mastermind and Jamat-ud-Dawa (JuD) chief Hafiz Saeed was on Thursday sentenced to 10 years in jail by an anti-terrorism court in Pakistan in two more terror financing cases. However, PM Imran Khan's government is still providing special treatment to the UN-designated terrorist. According to an ANI report, the Counter-Terrorism Department officials are treating Hafiz Saeed as a VIP and he is still roaming in his SUV escorted by his aides.

Hafiz Saeed sentenced to 10 years in jail 

The terrorist whom the United States has placed a USD 10 million bounty on, was arrested on July 17 last year in the terror financing cases. He was sentenced to 11 years in jail by an anti-terrorism court in February this year in two terror financing cases. The 70-year-old JuD Chief is lodged at Lahore's high-security Kot Lakhpat jail. Saeed and his two close aides - Zafar Iqbal and Yahya Mujahid - have been sentenced to 10 and a half years each, while JuD chief's brother-in-law Abdul Rehman Makki was sentenced to six months imprisonment.

He was slapped with a prison sentence of five-and-a-half years and a fine of Rs15,000 in each case. The sentences of both cases will run concurrently. The court also granted him the benefit of Section 382-B of the Code of Criminal Procedure (reduction of the period of sentence of imprisonment). Malik Zafar Iqbal, the secretary of Al-Anfaal Trust, has also been convicted in the same cases and has been awarded similar punishment, the Dawn reported. The court also ordered that Saeed's properties be confiscated.

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A total of 41 cases have been registered by the CTD against the JuD leaders, out of which 24 have been decided while the rest are pending in the ATC courts. Four cases have been decided against Saeed so far. Thursday's sentencing comes weeks after Paris-based global money laundering and terrorist financing watchdog - the Financial Action Task Force retained Pakistan on its grey list till February 2021 as Islamabad failed to fulfil the agency's six key obligations, including failure to take action against two of India's most wanted terrorists -- Saeed and Maulana Masood Azhar.

With Pakistan's continuation in the 'grey list', the country may find it difficult to get financial aid from the International Monetary Fund (IMF), World Bank, Asian Development Bank (ADB) and the European Union, thus further enhancing problems for the cash-strapped nation.

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