WikiLeaks: ‘LeT’s annual budget for operations is Rs365 million’

Leaked US State Department memo details the relationship between JuD and LeT.

KARACHI: A leaked US State Department cable features details of the financial workings of Jamaatud Dawa (JuD).

The cable discusses a de-listing petition submitted by JuD and its leader Hafiz Saeed to be removed from the UN 1267 committee list and features details of JuD’s financial workings.

The UN 1267 committee is also known as the al Qaeda and Taliban sanctions committee.

The August 10, 2009 cable features a ‘non-paper’ prepared by the US in February 2009, detailing the links of Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) with JuD. A non-paper is an unofficial representation of government policy.

The document notes that Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi, LeT’s military operations chief, is responsible for the organisation’s military operations budget of Rs365 million ($5.2 million) annually. “He reportedly used the money to purchase all materials required for LeT operations other than weapons and ammunition, according to a source claiming direct and ongoing access to LeT leaders.”

The cable states that JuD relies heavily on private donations, NGOs, madrassas and businesses spread throughout South Asia, the Middle East and Europe. While JuD and its aliases use “funds raised both from witting donors and by fraud” to pay for social services or humanitarian relief projects, the money is also siphoned off to finance LeT operations. “To demonstrate results to donors, JuD would finance the cost of building a new school or upgrading facilities at a madrassa, but would inflate the cost to siphon money to LeT.”

It claims that despite being detained after the 26/11 attacks, Lakhvi and Saeed continue to run the organisation.

Lakhvi and Saeed have been named in a lawsuit filed by Mumbai attack victims’ families in New York. Lakhvi is one of the seven accused in a trial under way at the Rawalpindi anti-terrorism court on the Mumbai attacks. He was listed by the UN 1267 committee in December 2008 as an individual associated with al Qaeda.

According to a leaked February 2009 cable, the US ambassador to Pakistan wrote that the Pakistan government has reassured them that “prosecutors will win convictions against all the defendants after a trial lasting several months, though it has a stronger case against the five LeT operatives than against the two terrorism financers.” Indian Home Secretary GK Pillai has called the case a “facade”.

The JuD and Saeed were placed on the UN 1267 list after 26/11. The cable notes that a request to place them on the list prior to the attacks was “placed on hold by China at the behest of Pakistan.”

Aliases used by JuD

Tehreek-e-Hurmat-e-Rasool

Tehreek-e-Azadi-e-Kashmir

Paasbaan-e-Ahle Hadith

Paasban-e-Kashmir

Al Mansoorian

Al Nasaryeen

Idara Khidmat-e-Khalq

Falah-e-Insaniyat

Sources: US State Department cable dated August 10, 2009, Consolidated List maintained by UN 1267 committee

Published in The Express Tribune, December 7^th, 2010.