ATC awards jail term to 3 JuD leaders

LAHORE: An anti-terrorism court on Friday convicted three leaders of the Jamaat-ud-Dawa (JuD) in a case of terror financing and terrorism.

ATC Judge Ejaz Ahmad Butter awarded jail term to Hafiz Abdul Rehman Makki, Malik Zafar Iqbal and Abdul Islam all members of the Tanzeem AL-Anfaal Trust which is a subsidiary organization of the proscribed Lashkar-e-Taiba. The court awarded sixteen and a half years jail term each to Zafar Iqbal and Abdul Islam along with imposition of a fine of Rs 150,000. The court awarded one and half years jail term to Addul Rehman Makki along with imposition of a fine of Rs 20,000.

Till now, the men are convicted in three cases of terror financing. They have been convicted as the prosecution proved that they abetted in obtaining property in District Burewala.

Any banned outfit cannot purchase, construct and run any piece of land. If it does so, it comes under the definition of terror financing and terrorism.

The court while hearing the case on a daily basis concluded the trial and 10 prosecution witnesses recorded their statements in this case.

As per details, on July 3, 2019, the top 13 leaders of the JuD were booked in two dozen cases for terror financing and money laundering under the Anti-Terrorism Act (ATA) 1997. The Counterterrorism Department (CTD), which registered the cases in five cities of Punjab, declared that the JuD was financing terrorism from the massive funds collected through non-profit organisations and trusts including Al-Anfaal Trust, Dawatul Irshad Trust, Muaz Bin Jabal Trust, etc. Furthermore, the CTD during investigations found that they had links with the JuD and its top leadership, accused of financing terrorism by building huge assets and properties from the collected funds in Pakistan. These non-profit organisations were banned in April 2019.

Later, on July 17, Hafiz Saeed was arrested from Gujranwala on charges of terror financing by the Punjab CTD. Besides, the top JuD leaders, Malik Zafar Iqbal, Ameer Hamza, Mohammad Yahya Aziz, Mohammad Naeem, Mohsin Bilal, Abdul Raqeeb, Dr Ahmad Daud, Dr Muhammad Ayub, Abdullah Ubaid, Mohammad Ali and Abdul Ghaffar were booked. However, the JuD leaders claim that they have been nominated in the cases by wrongly attributing them as leaders of the banned Lashkar-e-Taiba (LT). According to the counsel of the JuD leaders, his clients had quit the LT before the organisation was banned in 2002. The counsel argued that the cases against his clients have been made on the basis of a link to defunct Al-Anfaal Trust which was formed to construct mosques in the country.

Moreover, in February, an anti-terrorism court had convicted Chief of Jamaat-ud-Dawa Hafiz Saeed on charges of terror financing and awarded him five and a half years imprisonment each in two cases.