- The United Nations (UN) has confirmed that Hafiz Saeed, the leader of the banned terrorist group Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) and the mastermind of the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks, is in the custody of the Pakistan government and is serving a 78-year sentence for terror financing cases.
- The UN also said that another LeT founding member, Hafiz Abdul Salam Bhuttawi, who trained the Mumbai attackers, has been confirmed dead in a Pakistani jail.
- The UN’s confirmation comes after it made several amendments to its sanctions list related to the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) and al-Qaeda.
Background
- Saeed (73) was declared a global terrorist by the UN Security Council’s Al-Qaeda Sanctions Committee in December 2008, shortly after the Mumbai attacks that killed 166 people and injured over 300.
- India has repeatedly demanded Saeed’s extradition from Pakistan, accusing him of being the key conspirator of the attacks that targeted multiple locations in Mumbai, including the Taj Mahal Hotel, the Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus, and the Nariman House.
- Saeed, however, denied any involvement in the attacks and claimed to be a religious leader who ran a charity organization called Jamaat-ud-Dawa (JuD), which was also designated as a terrorist front by the UN.
- Pakistan, under international pressure, arrested Saeed several times but released him on bail, citing lack of evidence. In July 2019, Pakistan finally arrested Saeed again and charged him with multiple cases of terror financing and money laundering.
- In February 2020, Saeed was convicted by a Pakistani court on seven counts of terror financing and sentenced to 11 years in prison for each count, totaling 78 years. He is currently lodged in the Kot Lakhpat Jail in Lahore.
Update
- The UN Security Council’s 1267 Committee, which oversees the sanctions on ISIL and al-Qaeda, last month made several amendments to certain entries in its list, including those related to Saeed and Bhuttawi.
- The updated information on the UN website said that Saeed “is in the custody of the Government of Pakistan after his conviction on seven counts of terrorism financing and is serving a 78-year prison sentence effective 12 February 2020.”
- It also said that Bhuttawi, who was declared a terrorist by the UNSC in 2012, “has been confirmed dead.” Bhuttawi, who was also known as Abu Anas, was one of the founding members of LeT and a close associate of Saeed. He was involved in training the LeT terrorists who carried out the Mumbai attacks. He died last year while serving a sentence in a jail in Pakistan’s Punjab province for terror financing.
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