Suspected al-Qaeda financier indicted in ATC

An anti-terrorism court on Saturday indicted a religious preacher on charges of financing militant organisations, including the al-Qaeda, for carrying out terrorist activities.

The ATC-II framed charges against Abdul Rehman alias Sindhi, 54, after he denied the allegations levelled against him by the Counter Terrorism Department.

Inspector Fayyaz Qadri of the CTD said the suspect was primarily associated with the Harkatul Jihadul Islami and ran a seminary, Jamiatul Umar, spread on eight acres in Gadap Town on the outskirts of the city.

He added that the suspect was booked in the terror financing case on November 20 on the reccomendation of the Federal Investigation Agency in the light of their report on suspicious transactions allegedly made through the bank accounts operated by him.

The suspect has been on the sanctions list of the United Nations Security Council since 2012 and was also arrested earlier on the same allegations but was released later after the prosecution failed to prove the charges.

The police had then alleged that Rehman had links with al Qaeda founder Osama Bin Laden and his successor Ayman al-Zawahiri. He also had close links with Saud Memon, a key suspect in the kidnap and murder of US journalist Daniel Pearl in 2002. The court has summoned witnesses against him on December 23.

Terror facilitation case

The same court adjourned the hearing of a terror facilitation case against former petroleum minister Dr Asim Hussain and others till January 11, 2020.

The court was scheduled to resume the hearing of the cross examination of prosecution witness Rangers officer Inayatullah Durrani by the defence lawyers, but the witness did not appear.

Special Public Prosecutor Sajid Mehboob Shaikh told the judge that Durrani was ill and could not make it to the court. Durrani had lodged the FIR against the accused in 2015.

Besides Hussain, who is the owner of the Ziauddin Univeristy and Hospitals, Karachi Mayor Wasim Akhtar, Pak Sarzameen Party President Anis Kaimkhani, former commerce and industries minister Rauf Siddiqui, Pasban General Secretary Usman Moazzam and others have been implicated in the case.