Hafiz Saeed, Pakistani Islamist accused of Mumbai attacks, jailed for terrorism financing

Hafiz Saeed speaks with supporters after attending Friday Prayers in Lahore, Pakistan on November 24, 2017. (REUTERS File Photo)

LAHORE, Pakistan, February 12 (Reuters): Hafiz Saeed, the alleged mastermind of the 2008 attacks in Mumbai, was jailed for 11 years in Pakistan on Wednesday on terrorism financing charges, a government prosecutor said.

Saeed was charged in Pakistan in December with collecting funds for a banned organisation. He pleaded not guilty.

"Hafiz Saeed and another of his close aides have been sentenced in two cases of terrorism financing," prosecutor Abdul Rauf Watto told Reuters.

Saeed is the founder of Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), or the Army of the Pure, a group blamed by the United States and India for the four-day Mumbai siege, in which 160 people were killed.

Saeed has denied any involvement in the Mumbai attacks and says his network, which spans 300 seminaries and schools, hospitals, a publishing house and ambulance services, has no ties to militant groups.