Pakistan has approached the UN security council committee with a request to let Lashkar-e-Taiba emir Hafiz Saeed to withdraw money for what Islamabad described as “necessary basic living expenses”.
Saeed, chief of UN-designated terrorist organisation Jammat–ud-Dawa was banned in December 2008 by the United Nations Security Council after the 26/11 Mumbai attacks in which 166 people were killed. Four years later, the United States had announced a US $ 10 million bounty for his arrest.Hafiz Saeed had tried to get off the UN list earlier this year but the attempt was firmly blocked.
In a request to the UNSC panel overseeing enforcement of sanctions against terrorists such as the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks plotter, Pakistan said one of the bank accounts frozen on UNSC’s orders was one where his pension – Saeed was once a college professor before he made terror his full-time business – was deposited by the Pakistan government.
“His bank account was blocked by the Government of Pakistan under compliance with UNSC resolution 1267, requesting an asset freeze exemption to access frozen funds in the amount of Rs 1.5 lakh (USD 1000 or INR 68,000) to cover the necessary basic living expenses for himself and his family,” Pakistan’s request to the UNSC panel said.
Incidentally, Pakistan’s request, backing Hafiz Saeed’s claim that he needed money for basic expenses, was filed just a month after the Lashkar founder was taken into custody for financing terror.
