By Mubasher Bukhari
LAHORE, Pakistan (Reuters) – Pakistan on Saturday arrested a man accused of being the leader of an Islamic militant group blamed by the United States and India for the 2008 Mumbai attacks. an anti-terrorism official said.
The arrest is related to terrorist financing, the official said, and not a specific militant attack.
“The banned organization LeT (Lashkar-e-Taiba), leader Zaki ur Rehman Lakhvi (was) arrested on charges of terrorist financing,” said a spokesman for the Pakistani province’s counter-terrorism (CTD) department.
The suspect is said to be running a medical pharmacy to raise funds and pay out for military activities, the spokesman said.
A UN Security Council sanctions committee says Lakhvi is in charge of LeT operations and accuses him of engaging in militant activities in a number of other regions and countries, including Chechnya, Bosnia, Iraq and Afghanistan.
Indian authorities said the lone survivor of the shooting during interrogation in Mumbai in 2008, in which 166 people were killed, told interrogators before his execution that the attackers were in contact with Lakhvi.
India has long called on Pakistan to execute Lakhvi, but Islamabad says Delhi has not provided concrete evidence to try the LeT leader. He was first arrested in 2008 but was later released on bail.
Imran Gill, Lakhvi’s lawyer, confirmed the arrest and told Reuters his case would be heard next week. He did not respond to further questions.
Another man who, according to India, was the mastermind of the siege in Mumbai, Hafiz Saeed, was convicted by a Pakistani court last year on two charges of financing terrorism. Saeed denies involvement in Mumbai attacks.
(Reporting by Mubasher Bukhari in Lahore, Pakistan; written by Gibran Peshimam, edited by Ros Russell)