Five Attempts In Four Months: China Continues Blocking Blacklisting Of Pakistan-Based Terrorist-Designates

Echoing its earlier positions of blocking the blacklisting of designated terrorists from Pakistan, China yesterday again had put on hold efforts of India and the US to blacklist Hafiz Talah Saeed, the son of Lashkar-e-Taiba supremo Hafiz Saeed at the United Nations, reports NDTV.

This is the fifth instance in four months where China tried to spoil the terrorist designation bid of India and the US. As per the reports, China objected to add the name of Hafiz Talah Saeed under the 1267 Al Qaeda Sanctions Committee of the UN Security Council.

In April India declared Saeed’s son as a terrorist. Through a notification, it said that Hafiz Talah Saeed was found to be involved in recruitment, fund collection, and planning and executing attacks by the Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) in India and Indian interests in Afghanistan.

The leader of the LeT and the head of its clerical wing Saeed has been allegedly engaged in sermons that propagated terror activities against India, Israel and the US. He was also a regular visitor to the different LeT centres across the country.

Earlier bids by China to block Blacklisting the terrorists-designates

Just two days prior to it, China had blocked a proposal to mark Lashkar-e-Taiba leader Shahid Mahmood as a global terrorist. The US treasury department had declared Mahmood and another LeT leader Muhammad Sarwar terrorists in December 2016 as part of the action “to disrupt Lashkar-e Taiba’s (LeT) fundraising and support networks.”

According to the website of the US treasury department, “Mahmood has been a longstanding senior LeT member based in Karachi, Pakistan, and has been affiliated with the group since at least 2007. As early as June 2015 through at least June 2016, Mahmood served as the vice chairman of Falah-i-Insaniat Foundation (FIF), a humanitarian and fundraising arm of LeT.”

Emphasising the overseas connections of Mahmood it adds, “Mahmood was previously part of LeT’s overseas operations team led by Sajjid Mir...Additionally, in August 2013, Mahmood was instructed to forge covert links with Islamic organisations in Bangladesh and Burma, and as of late 2011, Mahmood claimed that LeT’s primary concern should be attacking India and America.”

Earlier, in June China had put on hold a joint proposal by India and the US to blacklist Pakistan-based terrorist Abdul Rehman Makki under the 1267 Al-Qaeda Sanctions Committee of the UN Security Council. Makki is brother-in-law of LeT chief Hafiz Saeed, the mastermind of 26/11 Mumbai attacks and himself a designated terrorist.

In August, China further echoed its stance and blocked the blacklisting Abdul Rauf Azhar, a senior leader of Pakistan-based terror organisation Jaish-e-Mohammed (JEM). China’s bid to hold the backlisting of Azhar who had been marked as a terrorist by the US in 2010 saved him from the consequences like assets freeze, travel ban and arms embargo. Notably, Azhar was marked terrorist by the US for his alleged role in organising suicide attacks in India in 2008 when he was assigned as chief commander of JeM in India.

In September, further pitting itself against Indian interest, China blocked the proposal in the UN to mark LeT leader Sajid Mir as a global terrorist. Mir is wanted for his involvement in the 26/11 Mumbai terrorist attacks and has a bounty of USD 5 million on his head for his role in the attacks. In June this year, he had been sent to jail for 15 years by a Pakistani court. Pakistan though at the first place claimed that Mir is dead, later under the western pressure, it proceeded with the Court procedures.

India’s longstanding stance against terrorism

The move by China comes at a crucial time when the UN General Secretary Antonio Guterres is in India and had paid his tribute to the victims of 26/11 attacks in Mumbai. In parallel, the 90^th general assembly of Interpol is also going on in India where the Prime Minister. Narendra Modi has given call for global cooperation to eradicate terrorism.

In September, while addressing the UN General Assembly the External Affairs Minister  Jaishankar said, “The United Nations responds to terrorism by sanctioning its perpetrators. Those who politicise the UNSC 1267 Sanctions regime, sometimes even to the extent of defending proclaimed terrorists, do so at their own peril. Believe me, they advance neither their own interests nor indeed their reputation.”

Expressing his concerns over using terrorism as a political tool, he told PTI, “We do believe that in any process if any party is taking a decision, they need to be transparent about it. So the idea that something is blocked without assigning a reason, it sort of challenges common sense.”

The last diplomatic win for India pertaining to global terrorism came in 2019 when Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Mohammed chief Masood Azhar had been designated a ‘Global Terrorist’ by the UN. In that time as well, China, a veto-wielding member tried to put a ‘technical hold’ to block the process.