LAHORE: An anti-terrorism court on Thursday convicted Jamatud Dawa (JuD) chief Hafiz Muhammad Saeed and his three aides in two more cases of terror financing registered by the Counter Terrorism Department (CTD).

Announcing the guilty verdict, Presiding Judge Arshad Hussain Bhutta handed down a collective imprisonment of ten-and-a-half-year each to Hafiz Saeed, Malik Zafar Iqbal and Yahya Mujahid in each FIR No 16 and 25 while six months to Hafiz Abdul Rehman Makki in each case.

The judge convicted the JuD leaders under sections 11F(2), 11(i)(2) and 11(j)(i) read with section 11-N of Anti-Terrorism Act 1997. All the convicts were present in court when the judge announced the verdict.

All the sentences would run concurrently and the detention of the convicts during the trial period would be counted as an undergone sentence.

Mr Saeed and other leaders of the organisation had been under detention since July 2019. They have already been convicted in many FIRs of terror financing while trial proceedings in several others were pending adjudication.

The CTD had registered as many as 41 FIRs against the JuD leaders in different cities including Lahore, Gujranwala, Faisalabad, Sahiwal and Multan.

The trial courts have so far decided 24 cases.

Published in Dawn, November 20th, 2020