Lahore, June 30
Sajid Majeed Mir, one of the most wanted terrorists and the main handler of the 2008 Mumbai attacks who was once declared dead by Pakistan, will be interrogated by authorities here for his role in the deadly carnage, an official said on Thursday.
Mir, 43, a member of the banned Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) terrorist group, was jailed for over 15 years in a terror-financing case by an Anti-Terrorism Court (ATC) in Lahore earlier this month as part of Pakistan’s bid to exit from the grey list of the FATF.
“A Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) team will interrogate Mir in Gujranwala jail for his alleged role in the Mumbai Attack case,” a senior FIA officer associated with the probe of the 26/11 case, told.
He is imprisoned in the Central Jail Gujranwala, some 80 km from here.
Mir has been convicted in a separate terror financing case that has nothing to do with the Mumbai attack case.
The FIA official said Mir was earlier declared a proclaimed offender in this case.
“Mir, who allegedly had directed the attackers from Lahore during the siege in Mumbai, will also be quizzed for his links with Jamaat-ud-Dawa (JuD) chief Hafiz Saeed and LeT operation commander Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi and financing the attack,” the official said.
The 26/11 case has been pending in the anti-terrorism courts in Rawalpindi/Islamabad since 2009.
Six arrested suspects—Abdul Wajid, Mazhar Iqbal, Hamad Amin Sadiq, Shahid Jamil Riaz, Jamil Ahmed, and Younis Anjum—are facing charges of abetment to murder, attempted murder, planning and executing the Mumbai attacks and they are detained at the Adiala Jail Rawalpindi.
The case proceedings have virtually come to halt for the last many years.
The FIA said since India has refused to send its 24 witnesses to Pakistan for recording their statements and other evidence, the case cannot proceed further.
Mumbai attacks mastermind Hafiz Saeed and Lakhvi are detained at Kot Lapkhapt jail in Lahore, serving a term of several years in terror financing cases registered in the Punjab province.
In November 2008, ten LeT terrorists had sailed into Mumbai from Karachi and carried out coordinated attacks, killing 166 people and injuring over 300.
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