Why Hafiz Saeed’s arrest will help Pakistan more than India

Hafiz Saeed was arrested for the first time after December 2001 Parliament terror attack with India mobilising international opinion against Pakistan’s support to Hafiz Saeed.

Pakistan has once again arrested Mumbai terror attack mastermind Hafiz Saeed. This comes in the wake of Pakistan’s Punjab province registering FIRs against Hafiz Saeed and his accomplices in 23 cases, most of them related to terror financing and money laundering.

This also comes a couple of days after an anti-terror court of Pakistan granted pre-arrest bail to Hafiz Saeed in one of the cases concerning the illegal use of land belonging to his seminaries. Hafiz Saeed and others named in the FIRs are accused of collecting funds to finance terror activities.

These funds, according to the FIRs, were being collected for Hafiz Saeed’s outfits — Lashkar-e-Taiba and Falah-i-Insaniyat Foundation (FIF), Al-Anfaal, Dawat ul Irshad, Muaz bin Jabal, Al Hamd Trust and Al Madina Foundation. The funds for terror financing were, counter-terrorism department of Punjab province said, collected in Lahore, Gujranwala and Multan.

The arrest of Hafiz Saeed is to be seen in the context of two key developments Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan’s maiden state visit to the US later this month where he is hoping to meet President Donald Trump and strike a favourable economic deal for his country, and China assuming presidency of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) from July 1.

 

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