Pakistan arrests alleged financier of 2008 Mumbai attacks
Pakistan has arrested a man accused by the United States and India of financing the deadly 2008 Mumbai attacks.
Zaki ur Rehman Lakhvi, a leading figure of the banned Pakistani militant organization Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), was taken into custody by Pakistani security forces on Saturday.
Lakhvi, who was briefly arrested in 2008, is accused of financing the Mumbai attacks, in which 166 people were killed, a Pakistani counter-terrorism official said.
“Proscribed organization LeT (Lashkar-e-Taiba) leader Zaki ur Rehman Lakhvi has been arrested on charges of terrorism financing,” said a spokesman for the Counter Terrorism Department (CTD) of the Pakistani province of Punjab.
The CTD official added that Lakhvi, who ran a medical center in Lahore, used the dispensary as a front to collect and disburse funds for financing terrorist activities across the world.
Lakhvi's lawyer, Imran Gill, told Reuters that his client’s case would be heard next week, but did not disclose further information.
Mohammed Ajmal Kasab, the only surviving gunman of the Mumbai attacks who was hanged by India in 2012, had reportedly named Lakhvi as an accessory.
A sanctions committee of the United Nations Security Council said Lakhvi was the chief of operations (CO) of the banned Pakistani militant organization. Lakhvi has been accused of involvement in militant activities in a number of other regions and countries, including Chechnya, Bosnia, Iraq and Afghanistan.
India has long called on Pakistan to bring Lakhvi to trial, but Islamabad says Delhi has not provided concrete evidence to try the LeT leader.
Last year, a Pakistani court sentenced another man, accused by India of being the mastermind of the Mumbai siege, to 11 years in jail.
Hafiz Saeed was convicted on two charges of terrorism financing. Saeed, the alleged founder of LeT, has denied any involvement in the Mumbai attacks.
Relations between Pakistan and India took a turn for the worse after the attack on India’s financial hub in November 2008.
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