Day after India termed Lakhvi's conviction a farce, US tells Pakistan to punish him for Mumbai attacks

A day after India termed Pakistan's action against Mumbai terror attack mastermind Zaki-Ur-Rehman Lakhvi as "farce" and an attempt to mislead Financial Action Task Force (FATF) ahead of its plenary, United States also urged Pakistan to hold him accountable for the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks in which six Americans also lost their lives.

"We are encouraged by the recent conviction of Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi. However, his crimes go far beyond financing terrorism. Pakistan should further hold him accountable for his involvement in terrorist attacks, including the Mumbai attacks," the US State Department said in a tweet.

India had said on Friday that the timing of these actions clearly suggests the intention of conveying the sense of compliance ahead of the next FATF plenary meeting in February 2021 and that "it has become routine for Pakistan to come up with such farcical actions prior to important meetings".

India also said UN proscribed entities and designated terrorists act as proxies of Pakist establishment to fulfil its anti-India agenda and urged the international community to hold Pakistan to account and ensure it takes credible actions against terror groups, terror infrastructure and individual terrorists

An anti-terrorism court in Lahore on Friday sentenced 26/11 Mumbai Terror attacks mastermind Zakiur-ur-Rehman Lakhvi, a leader of the proscribed Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) terrorist outfit, to 15 years in prison in a terror-funding case.

The Counter-Terrorism Department (CTD) of Punjab Police had arrested Lakhvi on January 2 on the charges of terror financing case.

One hundred and sixty-six people were killed and 300 were injured in Mumbai terror attacks in 2008. Lakhvi was initially arrested in 2008 but was later released on bail.

He was designated as a global terrorist by the United Nations under the United Nations Security Council Resolution after the Mumbai attacks.

( With inputs from ANI )