Islamabad: A Pakistani court has sentenced a man to 15 years in jail for financing the main handler of 2008 Mumbai attacks. Sajid Majeed Mir, 43, was arrested in 2020 and sentenced in May this year, but his detention and sentencing were never disclosed by Pakistan. He was sought by the FBI in connection with the 2008 attacks on India’s financial hub that killed 166 people, including six Americans. Mir was designated a “terrorist” by the US and was indicted in 2011. He was on the FBI’s ten most wanted fugitives list.
Under the rewards for justice programme, the United States offered up to $5 mn for information on Mir’s alleged involvement in the attacks in neighboring India. The court documents provided no details on Mir’s involvement in terror financing. Mir’s whereabouts were not publicly known until the Pakistani newspaper The Dawn reported over the weekend that he had been quietly arrested in Gujranwala, a city in Punjab province. It said Mir’s sentencing appeared to be part of efforts by Pakistan to get off the "grey list" of the Financial Action Task Force. In 2018 the Paris-based group added Pakistan to the list.
Mir is the founder of the outlawed Lashkar-e-Taiba, of which he was believed to be a member. The group was active for years in the Himalayan region of Kashmir. In April, Saeed was sentenced to 31 years in prison for terror financing but he was never charged in connection with the Mumbai attacks. The official said Mir planned to appeal the sentencing. There was no immediate comment from India about Mir’s sentencing in Pakistan.
