Atul Sharma
Early Times Report
Jammu, Oct 19: Muhammad Sarwar, a Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) fundraiser branded a global terrorist by the United States, has died in Lahore, adding to the growing list of terror-linked figures who have met sudden ends inside Pakistan.
During the last four years, 35 terrorists, associated with various terror groups, have been eliminated by unknown gunmen or died under mysterious circumstances in Pakistan or Pakistan-occupied Jammu and Kashmir.
Sarwar, president of the Pakistan Markazi Muslim League (PMML) in Punjab, died on Sunday. In a statement, a PMML spokesperson said he was walking from his home to a mosque to offer prayers when he collapsed and died. The party has not specified the cause of death. A report by 24NewsHD, however, claimed he suffered a fatal head injury in a fall down the stairs. Neither account has been independently verified.
The PMML is the political arm of Jamaat-ud-Dawa (JuD), the outfit led by 26/11 Mumbai attack mastermind Hafiz Saeed. Saeed has been lodged in Lahore’s Kot Lakhpat Jail since 2019, serving multiple sentences in terror financing cases, according to officials.
PMML leaders Khalid Masood Sindhu, Saifullah Qasuri, Hafiz Talha Saeed, Yaqub Sheikh, Khalid Naik Gujjar and Muzammil Iqbal Hashmi expressed grief over the death. Hashmi said the party had lost a “strong and fearless” leader. Sarwar’s funeral was scheduled for late Sunday night at JuD’s headquarters, Jamia Al-Qadsia, in Lahore’s Chuburji area.
In 2016, the US Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) designated Sarwar and fellow senior LeT figure Shahid Mahmood as Specially Designated Global Terrorists. The move targeted LeT’s fundraising and support networks, and all their assets under US jurisdiction were frozen.
OFAC said at the time that the two men were responsible for raising and moving money to fund the group’s operations. The action, it said, was meant to expose their activities and cripple LeT’s financial pipeline and its capacity to mount violent attacks.
According to OFAC, Sarwar had been a senior LeT official in Lahore for over a decade and had held several leadership roles. He served as the group’s Lahore chief since at least January 2015, and in that role stayed in touch with its top leadership. Between 2012 and 2013, he worked with LeT foreign affairs chief Hafiz Abdul Rahman Makki, who asked him for money to cover travel within Pakistan in early 2013. Makki himself was designated under Executive Order 13224 in November 2010.
Sarwar’s ties to LeT reached back to the early 2000s. As Lahore emir, OFAC said, he personally handled fundraising and used Pakistan’s formal banking system to collect and transfer funds for the group. In 2008, he led delegations of businessmen to LeT facilities to seek donations, and he was one of two officials heading the group’s finance wing in Lahore. |
