Pakistan seeks to boost image by jailing Hafiz Saeed

A Lahore anti-terrorism court has jailed the alleged mastermind of the Mumbai attacks, Hafiz Saeed, for 11 years in Pakistan on terror charges, his lawyer said Wednesday (12). The is the first time he has been imprisoned since the 2008 assault. His lawyer said he would appeal.

The ruling came days ahead of a meeting of a world financial watchdog, Financial Action Task Force, next week to decide whether to blacklist Pakistan on failure to curb terrorism financing.

"The total punishment in both the cases was 11 years but he will serve five and a half years in jail as the two punishments will run concurrently," Saeed's lawyer Imran Gill told Reuters.

Saeed was charged in Pakistan in December with collecting funds for his banned organisations, which the UN and the US have designated as terrorist groups. He pleaded not guilty.

"Hafiz Saeed and another of his close aides have been sentenced in two cases of terrorism financing," prosecutor Abdul Rauf Watto

Saeed is the founder of Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), or the Army of the Pure, a group blamed by India and the United States for the four-day Mumbai siege.

The 2008 Mumbai attacks (also referred to as 26/11) were a series of terrorist attacks that took place in November 2008, when 10 members of Lashkar-e-Taiba, carried out 12 coordinated shooting and bombing attacks lasting four days across Mumbai, India's financial capital. The attacks began on November 26 and lasted until November 29, 2008. At least 174 people died, including 9 attackers, and more than 300 were wounded.

Saeed has denied any involvement in the Mumbai attacks and says his network, which spans 300 seminaries and schools, hospitals, a publishing house and ambulance services, has no ties to militant groups.

The US Department of the Treasury has designated Saeed as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist, and the US, since 2012, has offered a $10 million reward for information that brings Saeed to justice. He was listed under the UN Security Council Resolution 1267 in December 2008.