(TibetanReview.net, Sep17’22) – China has on Sep 15 put on hold a United Nations Security Council (UNSC) move to blacklist a Pakistan-based terrorist, thwarting a move by India and the United States to sanction the main handler of the deadly 2008 Mumbai attacks as a global terrorist. It was only the latest of three such actions taken by China so far this year to prevent the world body from cracking down on global terrorism.
India has repeatedly criticized China for making such moves involving Pakistan-based terrorists, questioning the latter’s claimed vehement commitment to fight this global menace. Each time China, the only member of the UNSC acting differently, defended its move by saying it was allowed to do so under the relevant rules, without offering any explanations why it was doing so other than more time being required to consider the case.
The latest India-US move sought to blacklist Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) terrorist Sajid Mir under the 1267 Al-Qaeda Sanctions Committee of the UNSC as a global terrorist and thereby subject him to assets freeze, travel ban and arms embargo.
Mir is one of India’s most wanted terrorists and has a bounty of USD 5 million placed on his head by the US for his role in the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks.
Earlier, last month, China put a hold on a proposal by the US and India at the same UNSC committee to blacklist Abdul Rauf Azhar, the brother of Jaish-e Mohammed (JEM) chief Masood Azhar and a senior leader of the Pakistan-based terror organisation. The 48-year-old Pakistani was sanctioned by the US in Dec 2010.
And before that, in June this year, China put a hold, at the last moment, on a joint proposal by India and the US to list Pakistan-based terrorist Abdul Rehman Makki under the same UNSC committee.
Mir has been a senior member of LeT since approximately 2001. He allegedly conspired to commit a terrorist attack against a newspaper and its employees in Denmark between 2008 and 2009. He was indicted by the US in Apr 2011 for his role in the Mumbai attacks. In August 2012, the US Department of the Treasury designated Mir as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist.