Amraiz Khan
Lahore
An anti-terrorism court on Wednesday convicted Hafiz Saeed, chief of Jamaat ud Dawa (JuD) a banned outfit, in two terror-financing cases. Lahore anti-terrorism court awarded five-and-a-half years prison sentence and a fine of Rs 15,000 in each case.
The court announced sentences in both cases registered in Lahore and Gujranwala, which will run concurrently. The ATC also granted him benefit of reduction in sentence for the period of his imprisonment, under Section 382-B of the Criminal Procedure Code. The court directed authorities to keep Saeed under custody until further orders. The verdict of the two cases was reserved on February 6.
Hafiz Saeed was arrested in July last year in connection with the terrorism financing case while on his way from Lahore to Gujranwala. He was convicted under the Anti-Terrorism Act Section 11-F(2) — pertaining to membership, support and meetings relating to a proscribed organisation — and 11-N (punishment under Sections 11-H [fund-raising] to 11-K [money laundering]).
The court had indicted the JuD chief and three of his associates – Hafiz Abdul Salam bin Mohammad, Mohammad Ashraf and Prof Zafar Iqbal – on terror financing charges on December 11 last year in a case filed by the Counter-Terrorism Department. Hafiz Saeed and Prof Zafar Iqbal were later indicted in a similar case on December 20. The cases were filed by CTD Lahore and Gujranwala chapters.
