Pakistani authorities announced a crackdown on Wednesday against Hafiz Saeed, leader of the group blamed for the deadly attacks on Mumbai in 2008, amid growing international pressure to act against militant groups.
Pakistan’s Counter-Terrorism Department said it had launched 23 cases against Saeed and 12 aides for using five trusts to collect funds and donations for the Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), blamed by India and the U.S. for the attacks in Mumbai that killed 166 people.
Two banned LeT-linked charities, the Jamaat-ud-Dawa and the Falah-i-Insaniat Foundation, were also targeted, the Department said in a statement.
‘Assets will be frozen’
“All the assets of these organisations and individuals will be frozen and taken over by the state,” said a counter-terrorism senior official, speaking on condition of anonymity.
The counter-terrorism department said the action was in accordance with U.N. sanctions against the individuals and entities.
The move follows pressure from the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), which last year placed Pakistan on its “grey list” of countries with inadequate controls over money laundering and terrorism financing.
A diplomatic source in Delhi said the crackdown was a direct result of the FATF plenary’s ultimatum to Pakistan to implement all the 27 points of action by October. The plenary met in Orlando, U.S., last month.
The source added Pakistan was pulled up on four counts, which included “no investigation done by Pakistan against terror funding done by UN designated terrorists”. Other areas pertained to Pakistan include not freezing weapon stores, ammunition dumps of the terror outfits, lack of implementation of legal provisions for targeted financial sanctions against all UN designated entities and not stopping the sustenance allowance to terrorists given by the Pakistani government.
