ISLAMABAD: In a serious crackdown against kingpins of proscribed organisations, Pakistan has decided to file terrorism and terror financing cases against top leadership of banned Jamaat-ud-Dawa (JuD) Hafiz Muhammad Saeed and others.

“Seven top leaders of JuD have been booked in cases of terrorism and terror financing in an unprecedented move against terrorism financing this week. They will be investigated and prosecuted in local anti terrorism courts,” confirmed a senior official of Counter Terrorism Department (CTD) Punjab on Wednesday. Intelligence operators have netted around 233 workers of the JuD, Falah-e-Insaniat Foundation (FIF), Leshkar-e-Taiba (LeT) and Jaesh-e-Mohammad (JeM) in a serious crackdown in the past eight months, added the official. The crackdown comes at a time when Pakistan is going to contest its final case with the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) in coming months, an effort to get rid of the FATF’s grey list.

All their assets, 522 properties/ madaris/mosques worth around Rs4 billion were taken over by the government, officials said. Some 44 cases have already been registered against operators of JuD, FIF, JeM and LeT in Lahore, Gujranwala and Multan for collection of funds for terrorism financing through assets and properties made and held in the names of trusts and non-profit organisations (NPO) including FIF, Dawatul Irshad Trust, Muaz bin Jabal Trust, etc. Large-scale investigations have been launched into financing matters of all proscribed organisations in connection with implementation of UN Sanctions against these designated entities and persons as directed by NSC (National Security Committee) in its meeting of January 01, 2019 chaired by Prime Minister Imran Khan for implementing the National Action Plan and addressing the issues of the FATF. According to fresh details gathered from the CTD Punjab, the operators registered 23 cases against the leadership of JuD, LeT, JeM and FIF for making assets from terrorism financing through the trusts and NPOs. These are Dawatul Irshad Trust, Muaz bin Jabal Trust, Al-Anfaal Trust, Al Hamd Trust and Al Madina Foundation Trust.

The leaders of JuD and LeT, according to CTD details, who have been booked include Hafiz Muhammad Saeed, Abdul Rehman Makki, Malik Zafar Iqbal, Ameer Hamza, Muhammad Yahya Aziz, Muhammad Naeem, Mohsin Bilal, Abdul Raqeeb, Dr Ahmad Daud, Dr Muhammad Ayub, Abdullah Ubaid, Muhammad Ali, Abdul Ghaffar and others. Large-scale investigations were launched into the affairs of JuD, LeT and FIF regarding their holdings and use of trusts to raise funds for terrorism financing, claimed another official of the CTD. They made these assets from terrorism financing, they held and used them to raise more funds for further terrorist financing, they added. Hence, they committed multiple offences of terrorism financing and money laundering under Anti-Terrorism Act 1997. They will be prosecuted in anti-terrorism courts for commission of these offences, added the officials. These assets and NPOs have already been taken over by the government in compliance with the UN sanctions.