JuD leaders indicted in three more cases

LAHORE: An anti-terrorism court (ATC) Monday indicted three leaders of the proscribed organisation Jamaatud Dawa (JuD) in three more cases of alleged terror financing and terrorism. ATC Judge Ejaz Ahmad Butter has indicted JuD leaders Hafiz Abdul Rehman Makki, Malik Zafar Iqbal and Yahya Mujahid, members of Tanzeem Al-Anfaal Trust, a subsidiary organisation of the proscribed Lashkar-e-Tayyaba (LeT). The court, after the indictment, summoned the prosecution witnesses.

On July 3, 2019, top 13 leaders of the JuD were booked in multiple cases for terror financing and money laundering under the Anti-Terrorism Act (ATA) 1997. The CTD registered the cases in five cities of Punjab and declared that the JuD was financing terrorism with massive funds collected through non-profit organisations and trusts, including Al-Anfaal Trust, Dawatul Irshad Trust, Muaz Bin Jabal Trust, etc.

The CTD, during detailed investigation, found that they had links with the JuD and its top leadership. They were also accused of financing terrorism by building huge assets and properties from the funds collected in Pakistan. These non-profit organisations were banned in April 2019.

On July 17, Hafiz Saeed was arrested from Gujranwala on the charge of terror financing by the Punjab CTD. 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, Yahya Mujahid and Abdul Ghaffar were also booked.

The Jud leaders, however, claimed that they had been nominated in the cases by wrongly attributing them as leaders of the banned LeT. According to the counsel for the JuD leaders, his clients had quit the LeT before the organisation was banned in 2002.