UN: In the second such action in two days, China on Wednesday blocked an attempt by the US and India to blacklist Hafiz Talah Saeed, the son of Lashkar-e-Taiba leader Hafiz Saeed, a terrorist residing in Pakistan.
The son of the mastermind of the 26/11 Mumbai terrorist attacks, Hafiz Saeed, Hafiz Talha Saeed, 46, is a prominent figure in the terrorist organisation LeT.
He had been designated a terrorist by the Indian government in April of this year.
According to information obtained, China put a stop on the UN Security Council’s 1267 Al Qaeda Sanctions Committee’s move to add Hafiz Talah Saeed.
Beijing has blocked India and the US’ request to list a terrorist based in Pakistan as a global terrorist for the second time in less than two days.
Hafiz Talha Saeed has been actively involved in recruiting, fund raising, and planning and carrying out assaults by the Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) in India and against Indian interests in Afghanistan, according to a notification from India’s Home Ministry.
Additionally, it had been reported that he had been actively touring different LeT centres throughout Pakistan and advocating for jihad against India, Israel, the United States of America, and Indian interests in other western nations throughout his sermons.
Senior leader of the LeT and head of the terrorist group’s cleric branch is Hafiz Talha Saeed.
China earlier blocked an effort by the US and India to designate Shahid Mahmood as a global terrorist
China on Tuesday blocked an effort by the US and India to designate Shahid Mahmood, the leader of the Lashkar-e-Taiba terrorist group based in Pakistan, as a global terrorist.
The designation of Mahmood, 42, as a global terrorist under the 1267 Al Qaeda Sanctions Committee of the UN Security Council was put on hold by Beijing after it was proposed by India and the US.
Mahmood and another LeT commander, Muhammad Sarwar, were both given designations by the US Department of Treasury in December 2016 as part of the effort “to disrupt LeT’s financing and support networks.” Mahmood, according to data on the US Department of the Treasury website “is a senior LeT member who has been a part of the organisation since at least 2007. He is stationed in Karachi, Pakistan. Mahmood was the vice chairman of the Falah-i-Insaniat Foundation (FIF), the LeT’s charity and fundraising arm, from at least June 2015 until June 2016.” Mahmood presided over FIF in Karachi in 2014. According to the website, Mahmood was recognised as a member of the LeT publishing wing in August 2013.
“Previously, Mahmood was a member of the Sajjid Mir-led LeT abroad operations unit. Furthermore, Mahmood was told in August 2013 to establish covert ties with Islamic groups in Bangladesh and Burma, and as of late 2011, Mahmood asserted that LeT’s main focus should be attacking India and America “according to the US Department of Treasury.
China has halted requests fifth time in the last four months
China has halted listing requests for terrorists with ties to Pakistan for the 1267 Al Qaeda Sanctions Committee regime five times in the last four months.
A combined proposal from India and the US to place terrorist Abdul Rehman Makki, who is based in Pakistan, on the 1267 Al-Qaida Sanctions Committee of the UN Security Council’s blacklist was abruptly blocked by China in June of this year. Makki is Hafiz Saeed’s brother-in-law and a terrorist with US designation.
Beijing put a hold on a combined motion from New Delhi and Washington to designate Makki as a global terrorist under the 1267 ISIL and Al Qaida Sanctions Committee of the UN Security Council.
Then in August, China once more blocked a US and Indian plan to delist Abdul Rauf Azhar, the top figure in the Pakistan-based terrorist group Jaish-e-Mohammed (JEM).
The US imposed sanctions on Azhar in December 2010. Abdul Rauf Azhar was identified by the US Department of Treasury in December 2010 for “working for or on behalf of JEM.” According to the US, Abdul Rauf Azhar is a top leader of the JeM “has exhorted Pakistanis to take part in terrorism. In 2007, he served as JEM’s acting leader. He has also held positions as the organization’s intelligence coordinator and one of its most senior commanders in India. Azhar was given the task of planning suicide bombings in India in 2008. He has worked as a JEM official overseeing training camps and was also active in the political branch of the organisation.”
Beijing blocked a UN resolution that sought to designate Lashkar-e-Tayyiba terrorist Sajid Mir as a global terrorist in September. Mir is wanted for his alleged role in the 26/11 Mumbai terrorist attacks.
Given his involvement in the 26/11 Mumbai terrorist attacks, Mir is one of India’s most wanted terrorists and has a $5 million bounty set on his head by the US.
He was sentenced to more than 15 years in prison in June of this year in a case involving the financing of terrorism by a court in Pakistan, which is battling to get off the Financial Action Task Force’s “grey list” in Paris (FATF).
In the past, Pakistani authorities had asserted that Mir had passed away, but Western nations had not been persuaded and had demanded proof of his passing. Late last year, when FATF evaluated Pakistan’s progress on the action plan, this problem arose as a significant sticking point.
Mir, a top LeT member with ties to Pakistan, is wanted in connection with the Mumbai terrorist attacks that took place in November 2008.
The US State Department has stated that “Mir was LeT’s operations manager for the attacks, playing a significant role in their planning, preparation, and execution.”
In his speech to the high-level UN General Assembly meeting in September, External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar stated that “The United Nations responds to terrorism by penalising its perpetrators.”
“Those who politicise the UNSC 1267 Sanctions regime, occasionally even to the point of supporting outright terrorists, do so at their own risk. Believe me, they don’t improve their reputation or even their own interests,” he had remarked.
Jaishankar had told reporters here last month that terrorism should not be used as a political instrument and that the idea that something is stopped without giving a reason strains common sense amid repeated blocks on plans to designate terrorists under the UN sanctions mechanism.
“We do think that any person making a decision in a process needs to be open and honest about it. the idea that something is banned without citing a cause “kind of strains common sense.” In answer to a query from PTI about the subject of repeated holds and blocks on proposals to name terrorists under the UN sanctions regime, Jaishankar had stated in New York.
China, an all-weather ally of Islamabad, has previously put holds on and blocked attempts by India and its partners to name terrorists residing in Pakistan.
A decade after New Delhi first sought the UN on the subject, India scored a major diplomatic victory when the international body labelled Masood Azhar, the leader of the JeM, who is based in Pakistan, as a “global terrorist” in May 2019.
China, the only member of the 15-nation UN Security Council with a veto, blocked attempts to blacklist Azhar by putting a “technical hold” on the matter.
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