Security Council allows terrorist Hafez Saeed to dispose of his money at the request of Pakistan

Nahla Abdel Moneim

At the request of the Pakistani government, the UN Security Council has allowed terrorist Hafez Saeed access to his bank accounts to cover his expenses and the obligations of his family.

The United Nations Security Council announced on Thursday 26 September 2019 that it allowed the terrorist Hafez Said access to his bank accounts; in order to cover his expenses and the obligations of his family, after it was frozen for links to terrorist organizations, most notably Al Qaeda and involvement in extremist attacks.

According to the Security Council, the Government of Pakistan formally addressed the Council on 15 August in order to enable Said from his bank accounts to cover some expenses, which was quickly approved, and Saeed’s accounts were frozen under Resolution 1267 for his involvement in suspicious relations with terrorist groups.

Pakistan justified its request as a humanitarian appeal by Saeed’s wife, who is crying to the government, so that she can pay her expenses and those of her children.

On July 18, 2019, the Punjab police counter-terrorism department in eastern Pakistan arrested Saeed in the Lahore area while traveling to Gujranwala in the northeast, and was then imprisoned and interrogated, after years of legal delay in his imprisonment.

The state placed him under house arrest without arrest, despite his involvement in numerous terrorist operations, and the court previously granted him a bail of 50,000 rupees on charges that also involved financing terrorist groups and turning state territory into terrorist camps.

While his arrest was accompanied by preparations for the important visit by Prime Minister Imran Khan to Washington on July 22, 2019, in which the two leaders discussed the danger of placing Islamabad on the list of countries sponsoring terrorism and economic financing required for the Asian countries, amid demands to mediate to resolve the Taliban crisis in Afghanistan.

Trump canceled the Taliban negotiations, India refused to give up Kashmir, and stepped up security, political and legal measures there.

What the Pakistani government wanted to arrest Hafez did not achieve much, perhaps the reason for the demands for the release of his money, which drew a lot of criticism in the Indian media, which accused its neighbors of sponsoring terrorism.