Indian officials informed the Times of India that the US has officially declared to all members of the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) that it will block—and therefore put an end to—Pakistan’s proposal to enlist an Indian national as a “global terrorist” by the UNSC “1267 Sanctions Committee”. The Committee was established in 1999 and primarily works on imposing “assets freezes, travel bans, and arms embargos” on the Al Qaeda and the Taliban members. The proposal was previously halted by the US to allow Pakistan to collect further evidence to prove their allegations. However, Pakistan failed to substantiate its claim. The US and India have repeatedly highlighted their combined determination to fight against domestic and international terrorism.
The current proposal was related to an Indian worker, Venu Madhav Dongara, who worked as an engineer in Afghanistan. Pakistan raised this claim against Dongara for “participation in the financing, planning, facilitating, preparing, or perpetrating of acts or activities….in support of supplying, selling or transferring arms and related material to ISIL or Al Qaeda”. He is one of the six Indian workers in Afghanistan that Pakistan claims orchestrated attacks on its territory. Five out of six of these workers have been brought back to India over fears of their abduction by the Pakistani ISI from Afghanistan—similar to what happened during the controversial Kulbhushan Jadhav incident. However, one of the Indian workers still remains untraced. These proposals have been brought before the UNSC Sanctions committee with the help of China, and most of them are in relation to the attack in Peshawar—a 2015 attack by a Taliban gunman in Peshawar’s Army Public School that led to the death of 148 people, most of whom were children.
India alleges that these claims by Pakistan are malicious attempts to seek vengeance following the imposition of sanctions by the 1267 Sanctions Committee on Jaish-e-Mohammed’s chief, Masood Azhar. Further, India called Pakistan the “nerve centre of terrorism” after the publication of the 11th Report of the United National Analytical Support and Sanctions Monitoring Team, which states that 6,500 Pakistani nationals were operating in Afghanistan as members of the Jaish-e-Mohammed and the Lashkar-e-Taiba.
Indian officials say: “We never really expected Pakistan to come up with any serious evidence. In Azhar’s case, even China had to unblock the proposed ban because he hasn’t just masterminded terror attacks but was also heading an organisation (JeM) already proscribed by the UN”. China, Pakistan’s un-hindered ally, blocked the ban on Azhar four times. Angered by China’s resistance, US imposed an ultimatum on China and threatened to bypass the 1267 Sanctions Committee and raise the matter directly before the UNSC. Consequently, China passed the proposal, and the sanctions on Azhar were imposed.
Image Source: Daily Times Pakistan
US Blocks Pakistan’s Proposal in UN to Declare Indian National as “Global Terrorist”
The proposal is one of the six other such claims made by Pakistan before the UN Committee.
June 23, 2020
