An anti-terrorism court has jailed Jamaatud Dawa leader Hafiz Saeed, implicated in the deadly 2008 Mumbai attack by the United States and India, for 31 years in connection with terrorism financing, court documents showed.
Saeed was found guilty of multiple breaches in two cases but it was not immediately clear how much jail time the new verdict would entail given his current incarceration and the fact that his sentences run concurrently.
“The sentences awarded to convict Hafiz Muhammad Saeed run concurrently of this case and of previously awarded if any,” a court said in an order, dated April 7, that was seen by Reuters on Friday.
According to Dawn, the ATC awarded the combined sentence to the JuD chief in two cases of terror financing, which were registered by the Counter Terrorism Department and imposed a collective fine of Rs340,000 on Hafiz Saeed in both cases.
Judge Ejaz Ahmad Buttar handed down the guilty verdict against two FIRs from 2019 under various sections of the Anti-Terrorism Act (ATA) of 1997.
In one of the cases, the judge awarded five-years of imprisonment each under sections 11-H (2), 11-I, 11-J(2), and 18 months in jail, under section 11-F(2) of the ATA. In the other case, the judge awarded a five-year sentence each, under sections 11-N, 11-I, 11-J(2) and an 18-month jail term under section 11-F(6) of the ATA.
Judge Ejaz Buttar said: “The evidence presented by the prosecution against Hafiz Saeed and Al Dawatul Irshad, an outlawed organisation, was tangible and convincing.”
Saeed is already in jail having been found guilty on multiple similar charges in 2020.
Saeed has been arrested and released several times over the past decade. He denies any involvement with militancy, including the 2008 Mumbai attacks in which gunmen who slipped into the Indian city killed as many as 160 people, including American citizens.
The US offered a reward of $10 million for information leading to his conviction.
The latest sentencing comes as Pakistan tries to avoid blacklisting by the Financial Action Task Force, which judges a country’s ability to combat illicit financing, including militant organisations. Pakistan has been on the watchdog's “grey list” since 2018.
India has not commented on Saeed’s new prison sentence but late on Friday, it declared his son, Hafiz Talha Saeed, a “terrorist” under its Unlawful Activities Prevention Act.
India claimed that Talha Saeed had been actively involved in the recruitment, funding, planning and execution of attacks in India and on Indian interests in Afghanistan.
“The central government believes that Hafiz Talha Saeed is involved in terrorism and he should be notified as a terrorist under the said Act,” the Indian government said in a notification.
