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 the financing of terrorism, the official said, and not to a specific attack by militants.
“The leader of the outlawed organization LeT (Lashkar-e-Taiba) Zaki ur Rehman Lakhvi (was) arrested on charges of financing terrorism,” said a spokesman for the Department of Combating Terrorism (CTD) in the Pakistani province of Punjab. .
The suspect allegedly ran a medical dispensary to collect and disburse funds for militant activities, the spokesman said.
A UN Security Council sanctions committee says Lakhvi is LeT’s chief of operations and accuses him of being involved in militant activities in several other regions and countries, including Chechnya, Bosnia, Iraq and Afghanistan.
Indian officials said the only survivor sniper in the 2008 Mumbai siege, in which 166 people were killed, told interrogators before his execution that the attackers were in contact with Lakhvi.
India has long asked Pakistan to bring Lakhvi to trial, 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 answer other questions.
Another man India says was the mentor of the Mumbai siege, Hafiz Saeed, was convicted by a Pakistani court on two counts of financing terrorism last year. Saeed denies involvement in the Mumbai attacks.
(Reporting by Mubasher Bukhari in Lahore, Pakistan; Writing by Gibran Peshimam, edited by Ros Russell)