Islamabad: A Pakistani anti-terrorism court has sentenced Hafiz Saeed, the leader of the banned Jamaat-ud-Dawa (JuD) who mastermind of the 26/11 Mumbai terror attack, to more than 15 years in prison after he was convicted in another case, a media report said on Friday.
Verdicts of three cases against Saeed, who been behind bars since last year, have already been pronounced, whereas several others against JuD leaders are pending with the ATCs, according to The Express Tribune report.
Besides Saeed, ATC Judge Ijaz Ahmed Buttar also handed down punishments to Hafiz Abdul Salam, Zafar Iqbal, Muhammad Ashraf and Yahya Mujahid to 15 years and six-month imprisonment, whereas a six-month imprisonment was handed down to Hafiz Abdul Rehman Makki, the report quoted details issued by the JuD as saying.
Besides the prison terms, all those convicted will also have to pay a fine of 200,000 PKR each, the banned outfit added.
The latest verdict came after Saeed and three others were convicted by an ATC on November 19 in two separate terror-financing cases.
In the November verdict, the court also forfeited property possessed by Saeed, besides imposing a fine of 110,000 PKR.
In September, the Interior Ministry had informed the Senate that the federal government had frozen a total of 964 properties belonging to the JuD and Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM).
On February 12, Saeed was convicted in the two cases and sent to jail for five-and-a-half years.
Banned by the UN Security Council after the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks, Saeed faces 23 terror cases in Pakistan alone.
Pakistan filed charges against him only after Financial Action Task Force (FATF), a global watchdog for terror funding and money laundering put the country under ‘grey list’.