Pakistan's law enforcement agencies on Thursday arrested the "top four leaders" of the banned LeT/JuD on charges of terrorism financing, a move that authorities say would put the "entire core leadership" of these outfits on trial.
The top four leaders of Lashkar-e-Taiba /Jamaat-ud-Dawah (JuD) arrested on Thursday have been identified as Professor Zafar Iqbal, Yahya Aziz, Muhammad Ashraf and Abdul Salam.
The development comes ahead of the Financial Action Task Force's crucial plenary meeting scheduled to be held in Paris from October 12 to October 15.
Pakistan was placed on the grey list by the Paris-based watchdog in June last year and was given a plan of action to complete it by October 2019, or face the risk of being placed on the black list with Iran and North Korea.
A spokesman for the Counter Terrorism Department (CTD) said that there had been an "important progress" in the National Action Plan (NAP) as the main leaders of proscribed organisation JuD/LeT have been arrested by the CTD Punjab in offences of terrorism financing.
"JuD/LeT chief Hafiz Saeed is already in prison facing trial for commission of offences of terrorism financing. Now the entire core leadership of the JuD/LeT will be on trial," the CTD said.
It further said the CTD Punjab has been investigating offences of terrorism financing wherein these accused had built assets using the funds raised through terrorism financing.