Lashkar-e-Taiba founder Hafiz Saeed, who is wanted in India for the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks, is in the custody of Pakistan, serving a 78-year prison sentence as a result of his conviction in seven terror financing cases, the United Nations has said.
Saeed – who also heads the Jamaat-ud-Dawa, a front for the Lashkar-e-Taiba – has been serving the sentence since February 12, 2020, the United Nations Security Council said.
In December, New Delhi had asked the Pakistani government to extradite Saeed to India to face trial. The Ministry of External Affairs said he is wanted in multiple cases and has also been proscribed as a terrorist by the United Nations.
Saeed has been in jail in Pakistan since 2019 on multiple charges of terror financing along with other leaders of the banned terrorist outfit Jamaat-ud-Dawa, the front organisation of the Lashkar-e-Taiba. He is also a United Nations-designated terrorist and has a $10 million (Rs 73.6 crore) bounty on him.
The United Nations Security Council said that Saeed played a key role in the Lashkar-e-Taiba’s operational and fundraising activities.
He is also accused of setting up Lashkar-e-Taiba camps in Pakistan and organising the infiltration of militants into Iraq and making arrangements for an operative of the militant group to be sent to Europe as its European fundraising coordinator.
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