LeT financiers in focus after Jundal arrest

Bahaziq is the chief financier of Lashkar-e-Taiba and heads its Saudi cell, which scouts for and provides safe houses to operatives.

A key element in the interrogation of Zabiuddin Ansari alias Abu Jundal has been to figure out the shadowy figures who actively finance Lashkar-e-Taiba’s (LeT) operations. And it has once again brought back the focus on a 68-year-old Indian-born Saudi Arabia national, Mahmoud Mohammad Ahmed Bahaziq.

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Abu Jundal, who was arrested with the help of Saudi Arabian authorities, is also being questioned about the role of Asad Khan alias Abu Sufiyan, Siddique Bin Osman alias Rafeeq alias Abu Hanzala, and Farhatullah Ghori alias Abu Sufiyan, who reside in Saudi Arabia, and are key LeT operatives who provide shelter to wanted terrorists, and also play an important role in financing the terrorist outfit.

It has been learnt that apart from funding the LeT, Bahaziq also plays a key role in providing a safe haven to wanted terrorists who on many occasions use Saudi Arabia as a transit point.

The charge sheet filed in the Mumbai 26/11 terrorist attack lists Bahaziq as a senior financier of the LeT, and names him as a prominent figure in the terrorist organization, along with Haji Mohammed Ashraf — the chief of LeT’s finances.

Police sources added that Bahaziq had created many fictitious charitable trusts, but after UN sanctions were imposed on these trusts, Bahaziq now channels the finances through various bank accounts under fictitious names, said police sources.

Bahaziq’s name first surfaced when police officials launched a hunt for Mohammed Azam Ghauri, LeT’s India operations commander, who was gunned down in April 2000 in Andhra Pradesh, and his partner Abdul Karim Tunda.

His role was further confirmed when Mohammed Ishtiaq alias Saleem Junaid, a Pakistani LeT operative, was arrested in Hyderabad in 1998. Bahaziq had met Ishtiaq in Mumbai and helped him with finances, said police sources.

Also, there has been information of Bahaziq having approached fugitive gangster Dawood Ibrahim and had asked him to fund the outfit.