An anti-terrorism court in Pakistan has sentenced Lashar-e-Taiba co-founder Hafiz Saeed to 31 years in prison after he was found guilty in two separate cases of terror financing. Saeed, the mastermind of the 26/11 Mumbai attacks, is an UN-designated terrorist and one of India’s most wanted.
On Friday, the Anti-Terrorism Court (ATC) decided to extend the 32-year sentence to Saeed in two FIRs registered using the Punjab Police’s Counter-Terrorism Department, court docket authorities said.
He further said that he was sentenced to 15.5 years and 16.5 years respectively.
Following his arrest, Pakistani authorities confiscated Saeed’s notable community mosques, schools, seminaries and charities, and other assets in the country.
The 70-year-old fundamentalist cleric has already been sentenced to 36 years in prison in five such cases before. The total sentence of 68 years in prison will run concurrently, which he could certainly serve behind bars for an awful lot less time.
Saeed is a UN-designated terrorist and has a $10 million bounty on his head, which has been placed by the United States. But it is believed that he has been allowed to work freely in Pakistan, even from inside the prison.
His corporation Jamaat-ud-Dawa, now banned, was concerned with raising funds for terror-related activities under the guise of philanthropy.
