The US has commended Islamabad for sending Hafiz Saeed, the chief of Pakistan-based terrorist group Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) and mastermind of 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks, to 11 years in jail for funneling money to terrorist groups in Pakistan.
The conviction came days before a key plenary of Paris-based Financial Action Task Force (FATF) that starts on Sunday.
The FATF will deliberate whether Pakistan can be allowed off its ‘grey list’ or be placed on the ‘black list’.
“Today’s conviction of Hafiz Saeed and his associate is an important step forward–both toward holding LeT accountable for its crimes, and for #Pakistan in meeting its international commitments to combat terrorist financing,” Alice G. Wells, principal deputy assistant secretary of state, said on Twitter late Wednesday.
“And as @ImranKhanPTI has said, it is in the interest of #Pakistan’s future that it not allow non-state actors to operate from its soil,” she added.
Noteworthy in Wells’ remarks were the descriptions of the process of conviction of Saeed as “an important step forward” and the description of him as a “non- state actor.”
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