26/11 Mumbai Terror Attack Mastermind Lakhvi Handed 15-Year Prison Sentence

Islamabad: The 26/11 Mumbai terror attack mastermind and Lashkar-e-Taiba chief Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi was on Friday sentenced to 15-year prison term by a Pakistan court.

Lakhvi was arrested in a terror financing case on Saturday, Hindustan Times reported. He is believed to have played a key role in the gruesome terrorist attack on India’s financial capital 12 years ago, which killed 166 people and left many injured.

“The Anti-Terrorism Court (ATC) Lahore convicted Lakhvi for commission of offences of terrorism financing in a case registered by the CTD for 15 years under different section of the Anti-Terrorism Act 1997,” PTI quoted a court official as saying.

On Thursday, an arrest warrant was issued for banned Jaish-e-Mohammad chief Masood Azhar, also on terror-financing charges.

These warrants are significant coming as they do ahead of a review meeting of Financial Action Task Force (FATF) vis-à-vis the inclusion of Pakistan in the ‘grey list’ for misuse of funds for acts of terrorism.

Pakistan, placed in FATF’s grey list in 2018, was warned in October that it has to step up efforts to curb acts of terrorism.

FATF president Marcus Pleyer Pleyer had advised Pakistan government to act on its recommendations, if it wants to avoid being included in the ‘black list.’

Also Read: No Relief For Pakistan, To Remain On FATF Grey List