Categories
-Top News Asia News China

China helps Pakistan to undermine UN anti-terror measures

China continues to defy the other members of the Security Council and the overwhelming anti-terrorism sentiments by protecting from UN sanctions four key leaders of the Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) that carried out the 26/11 Mumbai attack, reports Arul Louis

Fourteen years after the attack that killed at least 166 people, Beijing works with Islamabad to undermine anti-terrorism measures against Pakistan-based terrorists behind the carnage.

The four from LeT who got China’s umbrella this year were the group’s commander Sajid Mir, who orchestrated the 26/11 attack; deputy chief Abdur Rehman Makki; deputy chief of the LeT front Falah-I-Insaniyat Foundation Shahid Mahmood, and LeT commander Hafiz Talha Saeed, who is LeT chief Hafiz Muhammed Saeed’s son.

China also put a hold on sanctions on the Jaish-e-Mohammed terror group’s deputy leader Abdul Rauf.

China had initially allowed eight LeT leaders to be sanctioned, four in the month after the 26/11 attack, and four later, before taking a hardline in support of other LeT leaders in a show of solidarity with Pakistan.

“Our efforts to sanction the perpetrators and facilitators of these terror attacks were blocked in the past for political reasons,” India’s Permanent Representative Ruchira Kamboj said last week at the Security Council.

“These actors continue to walk free and have been organising further cross-border attacks against my country,” she said.

US Permanent Mission’s Political Coordinator John Kelley at the same meeting regretted that only one entity was added to the sanctions list this year and said, “The important work of this committee must remain free from politicisation that only benefits the terrorists.”

The committee paralysed by China’s intransigence was only able to add Khatiba al-Tawhid wal-Jihad, a terror group operating in Syria to the sanctions list this year, while the LeT leaders and another Pakistan-based terrorist have been spared.

The Security Council’s panel, known as the 1267 Sanctions Committee for the resolution setting it up, places individuals and groups under sanctions that include travel bans and financial restrictions for terrorist activities involving the al-Qaeda, the Islamic State and affiliated organisations like the LeT.

The committee includes all the 15 members of the Security Council and gives every one of them the right to place a hold on sanctions, which amounts to a veto.

When the Security Council’s Counter-Terrorism Committee (CTC) met in Mumbai last month, an audio clip of Mir directing the 26/11 terrorists at the Jewish centre was played to focus on the role of the terrorist under Beijing protection at the UN.

A file photo of 26/11 Attacks on Mumbai. Ten heavily armed Pakistani terrorists had landed undetected in Mumbai’s Badhwar Park in Colaba from the sea Nov 26, 2008, and laid siege to several key locations, including Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus, Taj Mahal Hotel, Chabad House and Leopold Cafe. (Photo: Sandeep Mahankal/IANS)

At the CTC’s special session in the terrorists’ killing field, the Taj Mahal Palace Hotel, External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar said, “The key conspirators and planners of the 26/11 attacks continue to remain protected and unpunished.”

This, he said, “undermines our collective credibility and our collective interests” and until “the masterminds and perpetrators of this attack” are brought “to justice, this task remains unfinished”.

In a video message to the meeting, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said, “That is what the US has been working to do, together with India and other partners for the last 14 years because when we allow the architects of these attacks to go unpunished, we send a message to terrorists everywhere that their heinous crimes will be tolerated.”

In the first flush of global fury against the horror of the 26/11 attack, China in December 2008 did not stand in the way of sanctioning LeT boss Saeed, operations head Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi, finance chief Haji Muhammad Ashraf and financier Mahmoud Mohammad Ahmed Bahaziq.

Later, four others from the LeT were added to the list: Muhammad Arif Qasmani and Mohammad Yahya Aziz in 2009, and Hafiz Abdul Salam Bhattvi and Malik Zafar Iqbal Shahbaz in 2012.

ALSO READ: 26/11: Envoy says Israel will ‘never forget, never forgive’

Categories
-Top News Asia News India News

China blocks terror tag for LeT’s Sajid Mir

Sajid Mir is India’s most wanted terrorist and was involved in the 2008 Mumbai attack, reports Asian Lite News

China on Friday (local time) once again put a hold on a proposal moved at the United Nations by the US and co-supported by India to designate Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) terrorist, Sajid Mir as a “global terrorist.”

He is India’s most wanted terrorist and was involved in the 2008 Mumbai attacks. The US moved the proposal and co-designated by India to blacklist Mir under the 1267 Al-Qaeda Sanctions Committee of the UN Security Council as a global terrorist.

It is the third time that China has blocked an India-US proposal in recent months after Abdul Rehman Makki, LeT and Jamaat-ud-Dawa (JuD) leader as well as Abdul Rauf Azhar, the brother of Jaish-e Mohammed (JEM) chief Masood Azhar was protected by Beijing.

Abdul Rehman Makki is a LeT Deputy Commander and brother-in-law of Hafiz Saeed, founder of the LeT. The UN Committee has also declared JuD, the political branch of the LeT, a terrorist front group.

Resolution 1267 provides for sanctions against individuals and entities that support or finance the acts or activities of ISIL, Al-Qaida, associated individuals, groups, undertakings and entities.

A file photo of 26/11 Attacks on Mumbai. Ten heavily armed Pakistani terrorists had landed undetected in Mumbai’s Badhwar Park in Colaba from the sea Nov 26, 2008, and laid siege to several key locations, including Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus, Taj Mahal Hotel, Chabad House and Leopold Cafe. (Photo: Sandeep Mahankal/IANS)

Sajid Mir is a top Lashkar-e-Tayyiba (LeT) Commander and is in charge of the “India Setup” of LeT.

Sajid Mir is one of the masterminds of the Mumbai Terror Attack (November 26, 2008). He was responsible for the largest ever overseas LeT terror attack resulting in the death of nationals of several countries including India and Western countries.

During the attack, 175 people were killed (18 Police personnel, 122 people, 26 Foreigners and 9 terrorists) and 291 were injured ( 25 Police personnel, 243 people, 22 foreigners and one terrorist Ajmal Kasab).

Mir was LeT Project Manager for the November 2008 Mumbai terror attacks. He, through satellite phone, instructed the terrorists involved in the attacks for executing hostages during the operation.

He is also actively involved in the launching of LeT operatives into India.

He looked after the security of Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi (LeT Operations Chief), responsible for anti-India terror operations.

Sajid Mir was involved in overseas recruitment/training activities for LeT and travelled to UAE, Bangladesh, Canada, Sri Lanka, Maldives and Saudi Arabia in Connection with operational work.

In 2003 a LeT module controlled by him was busted in Australia. Sajid Mir reportedly underwent plastic surgery in 2008.

Two Interpol notices RCN A-6269/10-2010 and A-2032/2-2019 are issued against him. India has listed him as a terrorist under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act [UA(P)A], 1967, as amended in 2019 in October 2020.

Pakistan arrested Sajid Mir in 2022 and sentenced him in May 2022 to 15 years on terrorist financing charges related to a charity set up by LeT founder Hafiz Muhammad Saeed.

Mir was indicted in the US District Court, Northern District of Illinois on April 21, 2011, and was charged with conspiracy to injure the property of a foreign government; providing material support to terrorists; killing a citizen outside of the US, aiding and abetting; and the bombing of places of public use. An arrest warrant was issued on April 22, 2011. Then Mir was designated as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist (SDGT) in August 2012.

US Department of States in November 2018 announced a reward of upto USD 5 million for information leading to the arrest and conviction of Mir. Federal Bureau of Investigation, in March 2019, included Mir in its most wanted terrorist list. (ANI)

ALSO READ: Mumbai police get threat of ’26/11-style’ attacks