In a terror funding case, a Pakistani court on Friday sentenced Mumbai attack mastermind and Lashkar-e-Taiba leader Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi to 15 years in jail.
Lakhvi was detained on Saturday by Pakistani authorities on charges of supporting violence. It is suspected that he played an important role in the Mumbai attacks, which killed 166 people and wounded several others in November.
“The Anti-Terrorism Court (ATC) Lahore convicted Lakhvi for commission of offences of terrorism financing in a case registered by the CTD for 15 years under different section of the Anti-Terrorism Act 1997,” a court official was quoted as saying by news agency PTI.
These arrests come ahead of the February review meeting of the Financial Action Task Force on the inclusion of Pakistan in the ‘red list’ for diversion of funds for acts of terrorism.
Indian government officials familiar with the developments claim that the arrest warrant for Masood Azhar was released because Pakistan is currently under pressure from the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), which monitors the nation for its suspected involvement in funding terror and money laundering.
After the global money laundering and terrorism financing watchdog found out that it did not monitor terror finance and money laundering, Pakistan was placed on the FATF’s grey list in 2018.
