Terror financing case: Pak jails ‘dead’ 26/11 handler Sajid Mir for over 15 years

Sajid Majeed Mir, one of India’s most wanted terrorists and the main handler of the deadly 2008 Mumbai attacks who was earlier declared dead by Pakistan, has been jailed for over 15 years in a terror-financing case by an anti-terrorism court in the country, which is struggling to exit the grey list of the FATF.

The Counter Terrorism Department (CTD) of the Punjab Police, which often issues convictions of the suspects in such cases to the media, did not notify Mir’s conviction.

His sentencing comes as Islamabad prepares for an onsite visit by the officials from the Paris-based global terror financing watchdog Financial Action Task Force (FATF) to verify the implementation of Pakistan’s relevant anti-money laundering and terrorism-financing reforms. A positive report may facilitate Pakistan’s exit from the grey list of the FATF.

An anti-terrorism court in Lahore early this month had handed down 15 and a half years jail term to Sajid Majeed Mir, an activist of banned Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), in a terror-financing case, a senior lawyer associated with terror financing cases of LeT and Jamaat-ud-Dawa (JuD) leaders said. Besides, since it was an in-camera proceeding at the high-security jail, the media was not allowed. The lawyer further said Mir has been in the Kot Lakhpat jail in Lahore since his arrest in April. He said court also imposed a fine of over Rs 400,000 on the convict.

Pakistani authorities had in past claimed he had died, but Western countries remained unconvinced and demanded proof of his death. This issue became a major sticking point in FATF’s assessment of Pakistan’s progress on the action plan late last year. This was where things finally started moving in Mir’s case leading to his arrest’, the Dawn newspaper reported on Saturday. His conviction and sentencing were, therefore, major achievements that Pakistani officials showcased in their progress report given to FATF on its action plan, paper commented.

Pak authorities had in past claimed he had died, but the West remained unconvinced and demanded proof