Hafiz Saeed, the main conspirator of the Mumbai terror attack and leader of Lashkar-e-Taiba, is in the custody of the Pakistan government and is serving a 78-year sentence. Giving information, the United Nations has confirmed that Hafiz Saeed is serving a sentence in a Pakistani jail in terror funding cases. Let us tell you that in the year 2008 itself, the ‘Al-Qaeda Sanctions Committee’ of the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) had declared Saeed (73) a global terrorist.
“He (Saeed) is in the custody of the Government of Pakistan after his conviction on seven counts of terrorism financing and is serving a 78-year prison sentence effective 12 February 2020,” the Sanctions Committee said on the UN website. . Saeed is the main conspirator of the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks and India had talked to Pakistan in December for his extradition.
Last month, the Security Council 1267 Committee made several amendments to certain entries in its Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) and al-Qaeda sanctions list related to freezing of assets of individuals and entities, travel ban and arms embargo. It was told in the updated release that Saeed was among those whose information was amended.
Under these amendments, the sanctions committee also said that the “death has been confirmed” of Hafiz Abdul Salam Bhuttawi, a founding member of Lashkar-e-Taiba, who was accused of training Lashkar-e-Taiba terrorists for the Mumbai attack. Wale Bhuttawi was declared a terrorist by the UNSC. He died last year while serving a sentence in a jail in Pakistan’s Punjab province for terror financing. Pakistan confirmed that India has sought the extradition of 2008 Mumbai attack mastermind Hafiz Saeed, wanted in several terror cases. Saeed, declared a terrorist by the United Nations, is the founder of Lashkar-e-Taiba.
Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) spokesperson Arindam Bagchi said on Friday that the request for Saeed’s extradition was recently sent to Pakistan along with some documents. “We have sent a request to the Pakistan government along with relevant supporting documents,” Bagchi told reporters in New Delhi. Contacted for comment on the issue, Foreign Office spokesperson Mumtaz was quoted as saying by Dawn.com. Zahra Baloch said Pakistan has received a request from Indian authorities seeking Saeed’s extradition in a “so-called money laundering case”.