China’s Again Blocks Designation of Terror Tag for Lashkar Leader

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China’s Again Blocks Designation of Terror Tag for Lashkar Leader

China, on June 16 decided to block the UN Security Council designation of Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) deputy chief Abdul Rahman Makki  as a terrorist.   India has termed China’s decision “regrettable” and “extremely unfortunate”.

 

“Evidence against Abdul Makki is considerable’

The Hindu writes there is a sense of déjà vu on this decision  “given that Beijing had repeatedly blocked the designation of the Jaish-e-Mohammad chief Masood Azhar until 2019, and other terror designations prior to that. Here too, the pile of evidence against Abdul Makki is considerable: that he is part of the command and control of the UNSC-designated terror group LeT, later renamed the Jamaat ud Dawa (JuD), which is also a UN-designated terror group, is in no doubt. He was not just a member of the governing body or ‘Shura’; he served as the head of its ‘foreign relations’ department, and raised funding. He is also a member of LeT chief Hafiz Saeed’s family (brother in law). The LeT/JuD has been prosecuted in India, the United States and even Pakistan for the 26/11 Mumbai attacks, and Makki was himself tried and sentenced by a Pakistani special court to nine years imprisonment on terror financing charges — a ruling overturned a year later. India wants him for his involvement in attacks over the past two decades, including the Red Fort attack in Delhi in 2000, and, more recently, in attacks on security forces in Jammu and Kashmir. He is on India’s UAPA list of designated terrorists and also the U.S.’s Specially Designated Global Terrorists with a $2 million reward for information that would convict him….”

The Hindu also argues that “Beijing’s last-minute hold on Makki’s listing came even as the Financial Action Task Force was meeting in Berlin to credit Pakistan’s actions on terror financing, and begin the process to relieve it from the grey list, pending an on-site visit in the next few months, may not be a coincidence……..it is clearly part of a pattern of protecting Pakistan internationally….”


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