Abdul Salam Bhuttawi, involved in Mumbai terror attack, died in Pak jail. (File/PTI)
New Delhi: Abdul Salam Bhuttawi, close to dreaded terrorist Hafiz Saeed and belonging to the terrorist organization Lashkar-e-Taiba (Let), has died in a jail in Pakistan. Abdul Salam Bhuttawi had helped prepare the terrorists who carried out the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks and was serving a sentence in a Pakistani jail for terror funding.
Abdul Salam was designated as a terrorist by the United Nations Security Council in the year 2012. Many years later, Bhuttawi was arrested by Pakistan on terror funding charges and was convicted in a terror funding case along with Abdul Rehman Makki, brother-in-law of Lashkar founder Hafiz Saeed, about 3 years ago. Bhuttavi was sentenced to 16 and a half years in August 2020.
The death of Bhuttawi, who served as LeT’s acting chief after Pakistani authorities detained LeT founder Hafiz Saeed in 2002 and 2008, was announced late on Monday by several organizations affiliated to the terror group. .
In the information given about the death of terrorist Bhuttawi, it was said that Abdul Salam died on Monday afternoon due to a heart attack in Sheikhpura Jail in Punjab province of Pakistan. An organization linked to Lashkar also released a video showing the last rites of 78-year-old terrorist Bhuttavi. The last rites of Bhuttawi were held at the terrorist group’s ‘Markaz’ or center in Muridke near Lahore on Tuesday morning.
Indian intelligence officials have also confirmed the death of terrorist Bhuttavi, but also said that detailed information about the case is not available.
In November 2008, 10 Lashkar-e-Taiba terrorists carried out terrorist attacks at several places in Mumbai, in which a total of 166 people, including citizens of several countries such as the US and Israel, were killed, while dozens were injured. Later, Pakistan also arrested seven people of Lashkar-e-Taiba, including Operation Commander Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi, for the attacks, but there was no significant progress in the case.
Bhuttawi was sanctioned by the US Treasury Department in September 2011, when it was said that he had been involved in arranging funds, recruiting people and tending people to Lashkar-e-Taiba for the last 20 years. was responsible for.
