Saeed says facing 'threat' to life; Pak court allows shifting of terror financing case to Lahore

Lahore: A Pakistani court on Monday accepted the plea of Mumbai attack mastermind and JuD chief Hafiz Saeed to transfer a terrorism financing case against him from the anti-terrorism court Gujranwala district of Punjab province to a court here on the ground that there is a "threat to his life".

On July 17, Saeed, a UN-designated global terrorist, was arrested in connection with the terrorism financing case while on his way from Lahore to Gujranwala. Prior to his arrest, the top 13 leaders of the Jamaat-ud- Dawah, including Saeed and Naib Emir Abdul Rehman Makki, were booked in nearly two dozen cases for terror financing and money laundering under the Anti-Terrorism Act, 1997.

Lahore High Court Chief Justice Sardar Shamim Ahmed held the hearing on Saeed's petition and accepted it when the government law officer raised no objection on it.

Saeed's advocate A K Dogar said his client is kept at Kot Lakhpat jail in Lahore but he is taken to Gujranwala, some 80kms from Lahore, on every appearance before the anti-terrorism court there in connection with a terrorism financing case.

He said shifting Saeed from Lahore to either Gujranwala or Gujrat anti-terrorism courts may entail threat to his life. Besides, the government has to make elaborate security arrangements on his shifting to the ATCs outside Lahore, he argued.

Accepting his plea, Justice Shamim allowed the trial of Saeed in the terror financing case registered in Gujranwala district in the Lahore Anti-Terrorism Court.