The United Nations Security Council 1267 Committee – one of the three security council panels dealing with counter-terrorism – has approved Pakistan government’s request to allow Lashkar-e-Taiba founder Hafiz Saeed to withdraw money for “necessary basic living expenses”, Geo TV reported on Thursday. Saeed is the suspected mastermind of the terror attacks in Mumbai on November 26, 2008.

Pakistan said one of the bank accounts frozen on the orders of the council was one where Saeed, who was a college professor for 25 years, received his pension from the government, Hindustan Times reported.

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“His bank account was blocked by the government of Pakistan under compliance with UNSC resolution 1267, requesting an asset freeze exemption to access frozen funds in the amount of Rs 1.5 lakh to cover the necessary basic living expenses for himself and his family,” the government said in its letter. Pakistan said Hafiz Saeed supports a family of four and was responsible for the “food, drink and clothes expenses for all his family members”, NDTV reported.

“...The chair wishes to inform the members that no objections were placed by the set deadline of August 15, 2019, for the consideration of the draft letter,” NDTV quoted the UN committee as saying last month. “Consequently, the letter is approved and the chair will instruct the secretariat to dispatch it.”

In August, Pakistan’s Counter-Terrorism Department had declared Saeed guilty of terror financing, following which the Punjab Police filed a chargesheet at the Anti-Terrorism Court in Gujranwala. The month before, he had been arrested by the department while he was on his way from Lahore to Gujranwala. He was declared a terrorist in India under the amended Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Amendment Act of 1967 earlier this month along with Jaish-e-Mohammed chief Masood Azhar, gangster Dawood Ibrahim and Lashkar militant Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi.

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