Namita Trilok Chandra
22nd November 2020
Hafiz Saeed sentenced to 10 years in jail (Source: Gulf News)
The Mumbai terror attack was something that will not be forgotten even in the years to come. The mastermind behind the attack, according to sources, was the Jamat-Ud-Dawa Chief Hafiz Saeed. He was recently sentenced to ten years in jail in Pakistan by the anti-terrorism court for two other terror cases.
Hafiz Saeed was given the status of a designated terrorist by the United Nations, and the United States of America had announced a bounty of $1 Crore on him. Saeed is currently at the Lahore High-security Kot Lakhpat Jail. He was the chief of the terror organizations Lashkar-e-Tayyaba (LeT) and Jamaat-ud-Dawa (JuD). India has also demanded that when caught, Hafiz Saeed be handed over to them; however, there is no extradition treaty between India and Pakistan.
On 3 July 2019, twenty-three cases related to terror financing and money laundering were filed against him. According to the Counter-Terrorism Department, all the money was collected by trusts like Al-Anfaal Trust, Dawatul Irshad Trust, and Muaz Bin Jabal Trust, amongst others. On 27 September, 2019, the United States of America asked Pakistan to prosecute Hafiz Saeed along with other terrorists. On the 30 November, the Government of Pakistan went ahead with the same. After a series of court cases and appearances, in February 2020, Hafiz Saeed was convicted to five years of imprisonment for financing terrorism, and in November he was sentenced for another five years for the same, making his tenure in jail ten years.
Hafiz Muhammad Saeed was born on the 5th of June in the year 1950 in Sargodha, Punjab. His father, Kamal-ud Din, was a farmer and they migrated from Punjab to Pakistan in the year 1947. He is referred to as Hafiz because he memorized the entire Qur’an and was said to be interested in the verses on jihad. He was a student at the Government College Sargodha which is now known as the University of Sargodha. He then went on to attain a master’s degree in Islamic studies and Arabic Language from the King Saud University in Riyadh.
General Muhammad Zia-Ul-Haq had brought in Hafiz Muhammad Saeed to the council on Islamic ideology, and he then went on to serve as a teacher for Islamic Studies at the University of Engineering and Technology in Pakistan.
(Sources: Economic Times, Times of India, Firstpost, The Hindu)
Edited by: Aditi Anilkumar