The United States on Thursday welcomed the conviction of outlawed Jamaat-ud-Dawa (JuD) chief Hafiz Saeed on charges of terror financing.
“The conviction of Hafiz Saeed and his associate is an important step forward – both toward holding LeT accountable for its crimes and for Pakistan in meeting its international commitments to combat terrorist financing,” United States chief diplomat for South Asian affairs Alice Wells said in a tweet. She commended the steps taken by Pakistan to combat terror financing and pointed out that it was in line with what Prime Minister Imran Khan had said. “And as Imran Khan has said, it is in the interest of Pakistan’s future that it must not allow non-state actors to operate from its soil,” she added.
An anti-terrorism court had on Wednesday handed down a five-and-a-half-year prison term to Jamaat-ud-Dawa chief Hafiz Saeed for terrorism financing. “Hafiz Saeed and another of his close aides have been sentenced in two cases of terrorism financing,” prosecutor Abdul Rauf Watto had said. “The total punishment in both the cases was 11 years but he will serve five and a half years in jail as the two punishments will run concurrently,” Saeed’s lawyer Imran Gill said. “We will appeal against the verdict,” he had added.
Malik Zafar Iqbal, the secretary of Al-Anfaal Trust, had also been convicted in the same cases and awarded similar punishment.
Both were convicted under the Anti-Terrorism Act Section 11-F (2) – pertaining to membership, support and meetings relating to a proscribed organisation – and 11-N (punishment under Sections 11-H to 11-K).
Section 11H relates to fundraising for the purpose of terrorism; 11-I is about the use and possession of money or other property for terrorism; 11-J relates to funding arrangements which result in money being made available for terrorism; while 11-K relates to money laundering.
