26/11 plotter was on FATF radar for action
NEW DELHI: Western countries strongly backed India’s call at the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) for the investigation and prosecution of 30 key terrorist leaders, including Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) founder Hafiz Saeed and operative Sajid Mir, who allegedly directed terrorists involved in the 2008 Mumbai attacks.
The list of 30 terrorist leaders includes nine designated by the United Nations Security Council, such as Saeed, LeT’s head of operations Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi, and Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) chief Masood Azhar, and others designated under domestic laws of India and the US, such as Mir and Azhar’s brother Abdul Rauf Azhar, people familiar with the matter said.
The actions taken so far by Islamabad, however, have done little to address New Delhi’s concerns regarding the failure to prosecute Pakistan-based planners and masterminds behind the assault on India’s financial hub in November 2008 that killed 166 people, the people said.
Though Ajmal Kasab, the only terrorist involved in the Mumbai attacks to be captured alive, named Saeed as being directly involved in preparations for the assault, the LeT founder was never even named in the charge sheet filed by Pakistani authorities in the case. Similarly, Mir was recently convicted under Pakistan’s Anti-Terrorism Act for being a member of the banned LeT, raising funds for the group, and providing funds for terror activities, and not for his alleged role in the Mumbai attacks.
The nine UN-designated terrorist leaders in the list of 30 are Saeed, Lakhvi, Masood Azhar, LeT finance chief Muhammad Ashraf, Jamaat-ud-Dawah (JuD) spokesman Yahya Mujahid, LeT founding member Abdul Salam Bhuttavi, LeT co-founder Zafar Iqba,. and LeT financier Mahmoud Mohammad Ahmed Bahaziq, who also served as the group’s leader in Saudi Arabia.
The 21 other non-UN-designated terrorists on the list include Mir, Abdul Rauf Azhar, and senior leaders of LeT and JeM such as Abdul Rehman Makki and Ibrahim Athar. Earlier this month, China blocked a move by India and US at the UN Security Council to designate Makki, the brother-inlaw of Saeed. India also sought to include mob boss Dawood Ibrahim along with the nine UN-designated terrorists but there weren’t many takers for this among Western countries, the people said.
At a series of FATF meetings to assess Pakistan’s efforts to curb terror financing and money laundering, the US and other Western powers backed India’s call for action against these 30 terrorist leaders, the people said. The US, in particular, played a key role in stepping up the pressure by naming Mir and Masood Azhar in its country report on terrorism for Pakistan, which was released in December 2021. The report noted that while LeT founder Saeed was convicted of terror financing, no action was taken against Masood Azhar and Mumbai attacks “project manager” Mir, “both of whom are believed to remain free in Pakistan”.
While Pakistani media reports had suggested that Mir was convicted and sentenced about a week ahead of a crucial FATF meeting in Berlin in mid-June, a copy of the court order on his sentencing, accessed by HT, states he was given three jail terms of six months, eight years and seven years by an anti-terrorism court in Gujranwala in Pakistan’s Punjab province on May 16, 2022.
The order, which gives Mir’s age as 43 and his residential address as Al-Faisal Town within Lahore cantonment, states the prison terms were given following his conviction of being a member of a banned group and for raising and providing funds for terrorist activities. The sentences will run consecutively.
The sentencing was done two days before Pakistan’s new foreign minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari held his first talks with US secretary of state Antony Blinken on the margins of a meeting at the UN headquarters in New York on May 18. A statement issued by the US state department at the time said the two leaders “underscored the importance of US-Pakistan cooperation” for counterterrorism.
Pakistan’s new government led by Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has been working overtime to mend ties with the US, especially after former premier Imran Khan alleged a senior American official was involved in a “conspiracy” to oust his administration. Khan was removed through a vote of no confidence in April.
It is believed that Pakistan has given a commitment to act against Masood Azhar for terror financing before a FATF team visits the country for an on-site visit. The visit is part of the multilateral watchdog’s procedures to take Pakistan off its “grey list”, in which it was included in 2018, following the completion of two action plans against terror financing and money laundering.
Pakistan has also informed FATF that it has acted against 300 terrorists in the past few years, in the form of arrests and convictions, seizure of properties, freezing of bank accounts, closing of training camps, and shutting down charities that were collecting funds for terror groups, the people said. The country initially prepared a list of some 6,000 suspects operating within its territory, against whom action for terror attacks, terror financing and money laundering was proposed. The list was later pruned to 300, the people added. Sameer Patil, senior fellow at the Observer Research Foundation (ORF), said Pakistan failed to act in the case of Mir for many years and action only came in response to pressure from FATF. “The arrest of Sajid Mir doesn’t mean much for India as the charges for which he has been arrested are not those for which India is demanding accountability,” he said.