Islamabad, June 27, (dpa/GNA) – A Pakistani court has handed a jail term to the alleged mastermind of the deadly 2008 Mumbai attacks, after years of claims about his death, as the country seeks to improve its global reputation and secure financial aid.
A court in the eastern city of Lahore, sentenced Sajid Mir, who allegedly played a leading role in planning and carrying out the Mumbai attacks, to 15 and a half years in jail in a case related to terror financing.
“Mir’s arrest seems to have taken place due to pressure of the FATF,” Amir Rana, a security analyst, and director at Pakistan Institute for Peace Studies (PIPS) told dpa on Monday.
Rana said that Mir’s arrest and conviction were a big achievement to be showcased globally by security agencies.
Pakistan’s security agencies had claimed for years that Mir, a top terrorist with Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), was dead.
His arrest, which took place in April, and his later conviction took place last month. Both were kept secret.
The US had announced a $5 million bounty on Mir, for his involvement in attacks like the Mumbai assault. That attack alone left 166 people, including six Americans, dead.
Earlier this month, the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) announced that Pakistan has implemented an action plan, provided by the watchdog needed for its removal from the grey list, a FATF log of countries accused of financing global terrorism.
Removal from the list would give Pakistan’s ailing economy a much-needed boost, as Islamabad looks to revive a stalled bailout package from the International Monetary Fund, to avoid defaulting on debts.
GNA