US tells Pakistan to hold Zaki ur Rehman Lakhvi accountable for 26/11 Mumbai attack

Instructing Pakistan to hold terror convict Zaki ur Rehman Lakhvi accountable for his crimes, US State Department (South & Central Asian Affairs) on Saturday, said that they were encouraged by his conviction. Pointing that Rehman's crimes go far beyond financing terrorism, US said that Pakistan must further hold him accountable for his involvement in terrorist attacks including Mumbai attacks. India on the other hand, has called his conviction a "farcical action", stating that the neighbouring country was indulging in such tactics to mislead the Asia Pacific Joint Group of the Financial Action Task Force.

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US: "Hold Lakhvi more accountable"

MEA spokesperson Anurag Srivastava remarked, "The timing of these actions clearly suggests the intention of conveying a sense of compliance ahead of the APJG meeting and the next FATF plenary meeting in February 2021. It has become routine for Pakistan to come up with such farcical actions prior to important meetings. It is for the international community to hold Pakistan to account and to ensure that it takes credible action against terror groups, terror infrastructure and individual terrorists."

26/11 attacks: Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi sentenced to 15-yr jail term for terror-financing

Lakhvi sentenced to 15 years jail term

The Anti-Terrorism Court in Pakistan's Lahore sentenced Zakiur-ur-Rehman Lakhvi to 15 years in jail in a terror funding case connected to the 26/11 terror attack in Mumbai on Friday. Lakhvi was arrested by the Counter-Terrorism Department (CTD) of Punjab province on January 2 on terror financing charges. The 61-year-old LeT commander, who was out on bail since 2015, is accused of running a dispensary, using funds collected for terrorism financing.

MEA lambasts Pakistan's farcical action against Masood Azhar & Lakhvi, cites FATF motive

Hafiz Saeed sentenced to 10 years

Meanwhile, 26/11 mastermind and Jamat-ud-Dawa (JuD) chief -  Hafiz Saeed has been sentenced to 10 years in jail by an anti-terrorism court in Pakistan in two more terror financing cases. According to ANI, the Counter-Terrorism Department officials are treating Hafiz Saeed as a VIP and he is still roaming in his SUV escorted by his aides. The UN-designated terrorist was arrested on July 17 last year in the terror financing cases and 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. 

Saeed's JuD is the front organisation for the Lashkar-e-Taiba which is responsible for carrying out the 2008 Mumbai attack that killed 166 people, including six Americans. Ajmal Amir Kasab, the only terrorist to be captured alive, was hung four years later on November 21, 2012. Saeed, an UN-designated terrorist also has a 10 million USD bounty placed on him by the American government in 2012.

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