Over the past two days, China has blocked proposals by India and the United States (US) in the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) to designate two Lashkar-e-Taiba leaders, Shahid Mahmood and Hafiz Talha Saeed, as global terrorists under the UNSC 167 sanctions list.
The US Department of Treasury declared Mahmood, 42, a Specially Designated Global Terrorist in 2016 over his affiliation with the LeT since 2007. He has previously said that the LeT’s “prime concern” is orchestrating attacks on India and the US.
The Treasury’s designation reads: “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.” The 2016 press release notes that Mahmood has travelled from Karachi to Bangladesh to recruit fighters from Rohingya refugee camps. He also visited several other countries like Syria and Turkey and forged “covert links with Islamic organisations in Bangladesh and Burma.”
Likewise, the Indian National Investigation Agency has accused him of running “sleeper cells” in Delhi and Haryana. He is also ranked 17th on India’s Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act terrorist list.
Hafiz Talha Saeed, meanwhile, heads the LeT’s cleric wing and is 26/11 mastermind Hafiz Saeed’s son. He was declared a terrorist under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act by the Indian Ministry of Home Affairs in April. The notification accused him of being “actively involved in recruitment, fund collection, planning and executing attacks by LeT in India and Indian interests in Afghanistan.”
It further said that Saeed, 46, is involved in recruiting and orchestrating attacks against India, Israel, and the United States.
China puts 5th hold this year on listing of Pak based terrorist at UN
— Sidhant Sibal (@sidhant) October 19, 2022
June:
Abdul Rehman Makki
Aug:
Abdul Rauf
Sept:
Sajid Mir
Oct:
-Shahid Mahmood
-Talha Saeed
This is the fifth time this year that China has used its veto to block 1267 sanctions against terrorists from its all-weather ally Pakistan.
In September, China blocked India and the US from designating LeT commander Sajid Mir. Similarly, it thwarted attempts to place LeT Deputy Chief Abdur Rahman Makki (Hafiz Talha Saeed’s brother-in-law) and Jaish-e-Mohammad deputy chief Abdul Rauf Azhar on the UNSC’s sanctions list in June and July, respectively.
It has justified these decisions by saying it needs more time to evaluate the proposals and ensure their compliance with the UN rules and procedures.
While the Indian government has not commented on this week’s developments, it has previously accused China of misusing its permanent membership at the UNSC to block Pakistan-based terrorists from being sanctioned.
In September, Indian External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar said that the UNSC was sending “signals” of “impunity” by failing to sanction the “world’s most dreaded terrorists.”
Jaishankar thus urged the Council to abandon the “pursuit of a narrow national agenda,” asserting, “If somebody blocks listing, particularly in cases where the merits of going ahead are very apparent, I think they do so frankly at peril to their own interests and to their own reputation.”