26/11 Mumbai Attack: Hafiz Abdul Salam Bhuttawi, who trained Lashkar-e-Taiba terrorists for the 2008 Mumbai terror attack, died in a jail in Pakistan’s Punjab province. One of his associates informed about this today. Bhuttawi, who has been designated a terrorist by the United States, served at least twice as the organization’s head and was currently serving a prison sentence for terror financing. Bhuttawi established the Lashkar-e-Taiba headquarters in Punjab and was an assistant to banned Jamaat-ud-Dawa chief and Mumbai attack mastermind Hafiz Saeed.
Death after severe chest pain
A member of the Jamaat-ud-Dawa said that Bhuttawi (77) was lodged in the district jail Sheikhupura, about 60 km from Lahore, since October 2019. He developed severe chest pain on 29 May and was taken to the hospital where he was declared brought dead. Amidst tight security, he was buried at Lashkar headquarters in Muridka which was attended by a large number of supporters of the banned outfit.
America had banned in 2011
A source in the Punjab government said that Jamaat-ud-Dawa chief Hafiz Saeed had requested the government to allow him to attend Bhuttawi’s funeral, but he did not get the permission. Saeed has been lodged in Kot Lakhpat jail since 2019 and is serving multiple sentences in terror financing cases. An anti-terrorism court in Lahore sentenced Bhuttawi to 16 years in prison in 2020 in a case related to terrorist financing. Bhuttawi, a close aide of Saeed, was banned by the US in 2011. The United Nations Security Council’s ISIS (Daesh) and Al Qaeda Sanctions Committee included Bhuttawi in its list of designated terrorists in March 2012.
