Pakistani court sentences militant leader to 5 years in jail

MULTAN, Pakistan (AP) — A Pakistani court on Friday convicted and sentenced a senior militant leader to five years in jail in a case of terror financing, the country’s counter-terrorism department in the eastern Punjab province said.

The court ruling comes after authorities arrested Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi, an alleged leader of the militant group that was behind the bloody 2008 Mumbai attacks in India. But he was sentenced in another case.

According to Punjab Counter-Terrorism Department, Lakhvi was fined 100,000 Pakistani rupees ($622) by the court in Lahore, the capital of Punjab province. Lakhvi was accused of running a dispensary in Lahore as a front for financing militant activities.

Lakhvi is alleged to be a leader of the Lashker-e-Taiba group that organized the Mumbai attacks in 2008 that killed 166 people. He was arrested after Mumbai attacks but released in 2015 by Pakistani courts.

Pakistan and India have a history of bitter relations. Since gaining independence in 1947, the two nuclear rivals have fought three wars, two of them over Kashmir, which is split between them and claimed by both.