Pakistan: Three JuD members convicted on charges of terror financing

On Friday, the ATC-III Presiding Judge Ejaz Ahmad Buttar announced the verdict against Hafiz Abdul Salam, Prof Malik Zafar Iqbal and Hafiz Abdul Rehman Makki.

The court decided to give a collective imprisonment of 16-and-a-half years to Salam and Iqbal while a one-and-a-half-year jail term was given to Makki.

Iqbal and Salam have been given one-and-a-half years imprisonment under section 11-F (6) and five years each under sections 11-N read with sections 11-I (2)(b), 11-H and 11-J of the ATA, 1997 along with a fine Rs 170,000 on each and Makki has been punished under section 11-F (6) only with a fine of Rs 20,000.

The prosecution said that a property measuring 16 marla in district Vehari was transferred in the name of Al-Hamad Trust, which is a proscribed organisation. The property was under the use and possession of the suspects, now convicted, as they were found to be members of the proscribed organisation, the JuD is a subsidiary organisation of Lashkar-i-Tayyaba, another proscribed organisation.

The prosecution said that the property in question had been used to achieve terror related objectives, raise funds for the purpose of terrorism and support the terror financing.

The court ruled that the property in question namely Madressah Markaz Al-Tauheed, Ahle-i-Hadees, is forfeited in favour of the state under sec 11-Q of the ATA, 1997.

As per a report by Dawn, the three individuals were not proscribed persons and were not enlisted under the fourth schedule of the ATA. However, the organisation they belonged to is a proscribed one.