Mumbai attacks mastermind Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi runs LeT from Pakistan jail
According to Indian and American security officials, LeT commander Zaki Lakhvi received $25000 while in jail from man who is a member of a front organization of LeT.
Being imprisoned for nearly six years on charges of involvement in the 2008 Mumbai attacks has not crimped the activities of Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) operations commander Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi - he has access to mobile phones in jail, continues to run the activities of the banned group and has received thousands of dollars in funding from a LeT affiliate.
Lakhvi, arrested in December 2008 from a LeT camp near Pakistan-occupied Kashmir's capital Muzaffarabad, is currently held in Adiala Jail in Rawalpindi. According to the US Treasury Department, Lakhvi received $25,000 from Lahore-based Muhammad Iqbal, who has been declared a "Specially Designated Global Terrorist" (SDGT).
Iqbal, who runs Asma Money Exchangers, is part of the LeT's financial network and provided financial, material and technological support to the group. Since 2010, Iqbal has also served as finance secretary of Falah-e-Insaniat Foundation, a front for the LeT and Jamaatud-Dawah (JuD).
"During this time, Iqbal sent about Rs 15 lakh ($25,000) to LeT operations chief and SDGT Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi and assisted LeT chief financial officer and SDGT Haji Muhammad Ashraf in sending money to an LeT associate," the US Treasury Department said in a statement.
According to Indian and American security officials, Lakhvi's imprisonment has not restricted his control or influence over LeT, which was founded by Hafiz Muhammad Saeed, considered the mastermind of the Mumbai attacks that killed 166 people.
According to chargesheets against Lakhvi by Pakistan's Federal Investigation Agency, he played a key role in planning, financing and executing the assault on India's financial hub.
Ajmal Kasab, the lone Mumbai attacker captured alive, had revealed that Lakhvi had recruited him.
Almost since the time he was imprisoned in Adiala Jail in early 2009, Lakhvi has had access to mobile phones that allow him to stay in touch with and direct LeT operatives.
In 2012, a top US official took up this issue directly with then Pakistan Army chief Ashfaq Kayani and sought action against Lakhvi. But Kayani rejected the request to take away the phone Lakhvi was using.
Top LeT and JuD activists, too, have virtually unfettered access to Lakhvi in Adiala Jail, located on the outskirts of the garrison city. According to several sources, these activists meet Lakhvi frequently to get directions and plan for his defence in the Mumbai attacks case.
Lakhvi's youngest wife has been allowed to stay with him in jail and as a result of these conjugal visits, he fathered a child sometime in 2010, according to Abu Jundal alias Zabiuddin Ansari, the Indian LeT operative who was deported from Saudi Arabia in 2012.
According to Indian officials, Abu Jundal was present with Lakhvi in a control room in Karachi from where the Mumbai attackers were directed.
When Pakistani authorities briefly cracked down on JuD in the aftermath of the Mumbai attacks, Hafiz Saeed and his colleagues formed Falah-e-Insaniyat Foundation (FIF) as a front organisation.
In recent months, the US has targeted the financial network of the LeT and its front organisations and operatives like Muhammad Iqbal. The US designated the FIF as a front of LeT in 2010.
Iqbal used Asma Money Exchangers to conduct financial transactions on behalf of LeT. Since 2013, Asma Money Exchangers accepted donations on behalf of LeT and displayed in its place of business donation boxes for FIF. The firm has also provided financial services to LeT since late 2005.