A day after China blocked the proposal put forward by India and the United States in the United Nations to designate the 26/11 Mumbai terror attack accused Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba terrorist Sajjid Mir as a global terrorist, it has again reiterated its stance at the UN where the Indian official underscored that the world would not overcome with the challenge of terrorism if countries deliberately oppose the proposals.
"...If we cannot get established terrorists who have been proscribed across global landscapes listed under security council architecture for pour geopolitical interest, then we do not really have the genuine political will needed to sincerely fight this challenge of terrorism...", Prakash Gupta, Joint Secretary, MEA at UN on China blocking proposals by India and US.
Notably, the proposal was designed by the US and co-designated by India under which he would have been declared a global terrorist and his assets would have frozen along with a travel ban and arms embargo. In September last year, it was learnt that China had put a hold on the proposal to designate Mir at the UN. Beijing has now blocked the proposal.
"We have been fighting terrorism for decades-- be it the 2008 Mumbai attack, Pulwama attack or Uri attack. We have lost several thousand civilians as well as the bravest of our armed forces in this battle against terrorism. When we talk about terrorism, it means we are narrating the actual experience in fact on a daily basis," he said.
Who is Sajjid Mir?
Mir, believed to be in his mid-40s, is one of India's most wanted terrorists and has a bounty of $5 million placed on his head by the US for his role in the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks. In June last year, Mir was jailed for over 15 years in a terror-financing case by an anti-terrorism court in Pakistan. Pakistani authorities had in the past claimed Mir had died, but Western countries remained unconvinced and demanded proof of his death. This issue became a major sticking point in FATF's assessment of Pakistan's progress on the action plan late last year.
Mir is a senior member of the Pakistan-based LeT and is wanted for his involvement in the November 2008 terrorist attacks in Mumbai. "Mir was LeT’s operations manager for the attacks, playing a leading role in their planning, preparation, and execution,” the US State Department has said.
Not the first time for China to block India's move
Beijing, an all-weather friend of Islamabad, has repeatedly put holds on listings to blacklist Pakistan-based terrorists under the sanctions committee of the UN Security Council. The US State Department had said that Mir has been a senior member of LeT since approximately 2001.
From 2006 to 2011, Mir was in charge of LeT’s external operations and planned and directed various terrorist attacks on behalf of the group. Additionally, Mir conspired to commit a terrorist attack against a newspaper and its employees in Denmark between 2008 and 2009. For his role in the Mumbai attacks, Mir was indicted in the United States in April 2011.
In August 2012, the US Department of the Treasury designated Mir as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist. As a result of this designation, among other consequences, all property and interests in property of Mir that are subject to US jurisdiction are blocked, and US persons are generally prohibited from engaging in any transactions with Mir. "Mir is on the FBI's Most Wanted Terrorists List,” according to information on the State Department website.
Also Read: China blocks India, US proposal in UN to blacklist 26/11 accused LeT terrorist Sajid Mir
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