Terror kingpin jailed

Suspected Mumbai jihadist attack mastermind finally behind bars

THE alleged mastermind of the jihadist attack on India’s financial capital which left 166 dead over a decade ago has been jailed in Pakistan for nearly six years on separate terror charges, his lawyer said.

Hafiz Saeed (pictured) was found guilty of “being part of a banned terrorist outfit” and for “having illegal property”, lawyer Imran Gill said.

He is wanted in India for allegedly planning the shocking 2008 attack in Mumbai, when 10 Islamist militants armed with assault rifles, hand grenades and other weapons killed 166 people and injured hundreds more. It took the authorities three days to regain full control of the city.

Mr Gill gave no details about Saeed’s conviction apart from saying he would be kept in prison in the city of Lahore.

The firebrand cleric is considered a global terrorist both by the United Nations and the United States, which put a $10 million bounty on his head.

He heads the Jamaat-udDawa Islamist charity, whose militant wing Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) is believed by Washington and Delhi to be responsible for the Mumbai attacks.

The United States hailed the sentence against him.

The conviction “is an important step forward – both toward holding LeT accountable for its crimes, and for Pakistan in meeting its international commitments to combat terrorist financing,” tweeted Alice Wells, top US diplomat for South Asia.

India has long said there is evidence that “official agencies” in Pakistan were involved in plotting the attack – a charge Islamabad denies.

Saeed has denied involvement, but has spent years in and out of detention in Pakistan, on various charges.

Saeed’s jailing comes as Pakistan faces blacklisting by the Financial Action Task Force, an anti-money-laundering monitor based in Paris, for failing to combat terror financing.