Pakistan reopened bank accounts of five major terrorist organizations, including Hafiz Saeed

Islamabad, Sunday 12 July 2020

Pakistan has started reopening the bank accounts of five militant leaders. This includes the bank account of Hafiz Saeed, accused in the 2008 Mumbai attacks. According to media reports, the move comes after the approval of a UN Security Council committee. Last month, the FATF decided to put Pakistan on a gray list for failing to control terrorism. It remains to be seen whether the next FATF meeting will discuss the move by UNSC and Pakistan.

Besides Saeed, bank accounts of Jamaat-ud-Dawa, Lashkar-e-Taiba, Abdul Salam Bhutto, Haji Ashraf, Yahya Mujahid and Zafar Iqbal have been reopened. All of them are on the UNSC's list of terrorists and are serving 1-5 years in prison in a terror funding case. According to the report, each terrorist appealed to the UNSC to open his bank account so that his families could bear the cost.

Crops are on the FATF's gray list

So, the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) decided last month to keep Pakistan on the gray list for the time being, as it has not been able to control the flow of funds to organizations like Lashkar-e-Taiba and Jaish-e-Mohammed. . The 27-point action plan was prepared by the FATF to take action against terror funds and money laundering and if it was not complied with, it was feared that Pakistan would be blacklisted but the decision was currently postponed till October.