The mastermind of the 26/11 attack, Hafiz Muhammad Saeed, has been sentenced to 31 years by Pakistan's anti-terrorism court, suggested local media reports. Saeed is the chief of Lashkar-e-Taiba.
Earlier in five such cases, the 70-year-old radical cleric had already been convicted of 36 years imprisonment. The total sentence of 68 years imprisonment will run concurrently. Saeed may have to spend not many years in jail because his sentence will run concurrently, a lawyer had told news agency PTI.
On Friday, anti-terrorism court (ATC) judge Ejaz Ahmad Bhuttar handed down 32 years jail term to Saeed in two FIRs - 21/2019 and 90/2019 registered by the Counter-Terrorism Department of Punjab Police, a court official told PTI.
"In the 21/19 and 99/21, he was sentenced for 15.5 years and 16.5 years, respectively," the official added. The court also imposed a fine of PKR 340,000 on Saeed.
He said Saeed was brought to the court from the Kot Lakhpat Jail in Lahore where he has been imprisoned since 2019 in strict security.
Saeed was arrested on July 2019 in the terror financing cases. Saeed-led JuD is the front organisation for the Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) which is responsible for carrying out the 2008 Mumbai attack that killed 166 people, including six Americans.
In 2020, the LeT chief was sentenced to 15 years in jail in a terror funding case.
Jamaat-ud-Dawa (JuD) chief Hafiz Saeed has been declared a global terrorist by the United Nations, while the US has also placed a bounty of USD 10 million on him. Saeed is one of the most wanted in the horrific 2008 Mumbai terror attack in which 161 people died.
In June last year, three people were killed and 21 were injured in a major car bomb blast outside Saeed's house. After the attack, Pakistan's National Security Adviser Moeed Yusuf alleged that India was behind the blast near the LeT chief's residence in Lahore. India gave the bordering nation a befitting reply and thrashed the allegations as 'baseless propaganda'.
(with PTI inputs)
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