Article author:
Associated Press
Munir Ahmed And Asim Tanveer
Islamabad (AP) — Pakistan is imprisoned for one of the militants associated with the 2008 terrorist attack in Mumbai, India 15 I was sentenced to a year's sentence. Terrorist financing unrelated to the assault, according to a court document read by the Associated Press on Monday. According to the
document, Sajid Majid Mir, 43, was arrested in 2020 and sentenced to May, but his detention and sentence were never disclosed by Pakistan. He was investigated by the FBI in connection with a 2008 attack on an Indian financial hub that killed 166 people, including six Americans.
Under the Rewards for Justice Program, the United States has provided up to $ 5 million for information on alleged involvement of Mir in an attack in neighboring India. did.
Court documents do not provide details regarding Mir's involvement in terrorist financing.
In November 2008, a group of 10 young attackers allegedly set sail from Karachi hijacked an Indian fishing vessel, killed the captain and brought a rubber dinghy to Mumbai. Then, in three days of chaotic days, they systematically attacked luxury hotels, train stations, hospitals, and Jewish community centers. The 10 were members of a Pakistan-based radical group, Lashkar-e-Taiba, and Indian investigators later said their actions were directed by a Pakistani handler over the phone. Nine of the attackers were killed by Indian troops. The only survivor, Ajmal Kasab, was arrested, tried and later hanged by Indian authorities.
Mir was designated as a terrorist by the United States and was charged in 2011. He was on the FBI's 10 Wanted Fugitive List.
Mir's whereabouts were not disclosed until the Pakistani newspaper The Dawn reported that he had been quietly arrested in the Punjab city of Gujranwala over the weekend. Mir's ruling said it appeared to be part of Pakistan's efforts to get out of the greylist of the Financial Task Force.
The Paris-based group added Pakistan to the list in 2018. The "gray list" consists of countries at high risk of money laundering and terrorist financing, but we will work with the Task Force to make changes.
According to a Pakistani court document confirmed by AP, Mir was a member of a charity founded by Hafiz Saeed. Head.
Saeed is the founder of the illegal Lashkar-e-Tiba, whose members were believed to be Mir. The group, divided into Pakistan and India, has been active for years in the Himalayan region of Kashmir, which both claim as a whole.
In April, Saeed was sentenced to 31 years in prison for terrorist financing, but was not charged in connection with the Mumbai attack.
Mir was sentenced to 15 years in prison by a court in Gujranwala on May 16, according to a document submitted to the AP by a Punjab counterterrorism official. Officials asked him not to be identified because he was not allowed to speak to the media.
Officials said Mir would appeal the ruling.
There was no immediate comment from India about Mir's decision in Pakistan.
Pakistan-India relations were tense after the attack on India's financial hub. Rival South Asian forces have fought three wars since gaining independence from Britain in 1947, two of which fought over Kashmir.
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Associated Press writer Ashok Sharma contributed to this story from New Delhi, India.
