Pakistan is the only country in the world which protects terrorist organisations and leaders publicly without any shame and acknowledges their so-called Jihad as a holy ritual. Subsequently the news which came out recently is not well received by Indians. Pakistan’s Lahore High Court (LHC) on Saturday acquitted six leaders of Hafiz Saeed-led Jamat-ud-Dawah (JuD), the front organisation for the proscribed Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), responsible for carrying out the 2008 Mumbai attack, in a terror-financing case. Lashkar-e-Taiba orchestrated the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks that killed more than 160 people.
Mumbai 26/11 Attacks Terrorists Acquitted
According to Dawn, the trial court had sentenced nine-year imprisonment to each Prof Malik Zafar Iqbal, Yahya Mujahid, Nasrullah, Samiullah and Umar Bahadur while Hafiz Abdul Rehman Makki had been awarded a six-month jail term. The trial court had found these leaders guilty of terror financing. They had been collecting funds and unlawfully financing the proscribed organisation Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT). It had also ordered the confiscation of assets made from funds collected through terrorism financing.
“The appellants challenged their conviction before a division bench of the LHC comprising Chief Justice Muhammad Ameer Bhatti and Justice Tariq Saleem Sheikh. Their counsel argued that the prosecution failed to prove the charge against the appellants beyond a reasonable doubt. He said the trial court had not appreciated the evidence properly which had caused the serious miscarriage of justice,” Pakistani media reported.
He argued that the Al-Anfal Trust, of which the appellants were members, had no nexus with the proscribed Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT). The counsel contended that there was not a whit of evidence that the appellants engaged in any activity that supported the objectives of the LeT or other such organisation. He said the appellants had already disassociated them from the trust way back in the mid 2000s, Dawn reported.
Let Founder Saeed Designated as International Terrorist By US
LeT founder Saeed has also been convicted in dozens of FIRs registered by the CTD on charges of terror financing. The CTD had registered as many as 41 FIRs against the leaders of the JuD in different cities. The trial courts have so far decided 37 of them. The ATC has sentenced Saeed to collective imprisonment of 36 years on terror finance charges under Anti-Terrorism Act 1997 in five cases so far. Saeed’s jail terms will run concurrently meaning he will not stay in jail for many years.
The US named Saeed as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist, and the US, since 2012, has offered a USD 10-million reward for information that brings Saeed to justice. He was listed as a terrorist under the UN Security Council Resolution in 2008. This is not at all a good sign from the Indian perspective, and now the India’s faith resides in the hands of UNSC.
Source : The Freepress Journal
