Pakistan: Jamaat ud Dawah chief Hafiz Saeed arrested

By Aamir Latif

KARACHI, Pakistan (AA) - Police in Pakistan arrested head of Jamaat ud Dawah (JuD) Hafiz Mohammad Saeed in a terror financing case on Wednesday, an official confirmed.

Saeed was taken into custody while on his way to Gujranwala district from Lahore -- the capital of northeastern Punjab province -- a couple of weeks after authorities booked him together with several other leaders of banned militant outfits for terror financing in a desperate bid to avoid being placed on a blacklist of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF).

He was presented in an anti-terrorism court in Gujranwala, which remanded him in police custody for seven days.

Shahbaz Gill, a spokesman of provincial chief minister, told reporters that Saeed, an alleged mastermind of 2008 Mumbai attacks, had been taken into custody for illegally raising funds, and running a banned group.

"He [Saeed] will face the court of law," Gill said, adding the government would continue to act against banned outfits under its National Action Plan -- a counterterrorism strategy aimed at rooting out militancy from the country.

Last week, Saeed was granted an interim bail by the Lahore High Court in a separate case.

Responding to the arrest, Ujjwal Nikam, India’s special public prosecutor in the deadly 26/11 Mumbai attacks case, said: "Pakistan is fooling the world that they have arrested him, we have to see how they produce evidence in courts and how efforts are made to convict him, otherwise it is a drama."

Apart from Saeed, the leaders of Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM), Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), and Falah-e-Insaniat Foundation -- a charity organization affiliated with the JuD -- were booked for allegedly making assets through terror financing, the channel reported.

Also, authorities have seized several religious seminaries and schools tied to these groups across Pakistan.

- Groups proscribed by Pakistan, US

Both Pakistan and the U.S. have already proscribed these groups and seized assets of the groups -- including JuD and JeM -- blamed for several terrorist attacks such as the Mumbai attacks that killed over 166 people, including six U.S. citizens.

Last month, Pakistan managed to garner much-needed support from three FATF member states to avoid being placed on its blacklist, but black clouds still hang over Islamabad as the global money laundering watchdog set an October 2019 deadline to complete its action plan aimed at fully blocking money laundering and other financial loopholes.

Islamabad has been on the global money laundering watchdog’s radar since June 2018, when it was placed on a gray list for terror financing and money laundering risks after an assessment of the country's financial system and security mechanism.

Turkey was the only country that opposed the move backed by the U.S, U.K., and India, with Beijing abstaining.

India -- co-chair of the joint group of FATF and Asia Pacific Group -- wants Islamabad to be placed on the Paris-based watchdog’s blacklist of countries which fail to meet international standards in combating financial crimes.

However, an aggressive diplomatic push from Islamabad temporarily frustrated the looming threat with the support of Turkey, China, and Malaysia.

According to the 36-nation FATF charter, the support of at least three member states is essential to avoid the blacklisting.

The watchdog, in its five-day meeting in Florida in June, agreed that Islamabad made progress towards implementing the action plan -- negotiated between Pakistan and other FATF members -- but still sought "dissuasive sanctions" and "effective prosecution".

In recent months, Pakistan has taken some major steps in accordance with the action plan, which includes bans on foreign currency transactions without a national tax number, and on currency changes of up to $500 in the open currency market without submission of a national identity card copy.

The group will meet in Paris on Oct. 13-18.

* Shuriah Niazi from New Delhi, India contributed to this story.