China has blocked India’s move in the UN demanding action against Pakistan over release of Mumbai attack mastermind and LeT commander Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi in violation of a resolution of the world body as it contended that India provided insufficient information.
As the UN Sanctions Committee met here at India’s request, a clarification was to be sought from Pakistan over Lakhvi’s release in the 26/11 trial but the Chinese representatives blocked the move on grounds that India did not provide sufficient information, official sources said.
In a letter to the current Chair of the UN Sanctions Committee Jim McLay, India’s Permanent Representative to the UN Asoke Mukherjee last month had said Lakhvi’s release by a Pakistani court was in violation of the 1267 UN resolution dealing with designated entities and individuals.
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The sanctions measures apply to designated individuals and entities associated with terror groups including al-Qaeda and LeT, wherever located.
The sanctions’ committee has five permanent and 10 non-permanent UN member states in it.
The release of Lakhvi had also raised concerns in the US, UK, Russia, France and Germany with Washington calling for him to be re-arrested.
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Lakhvi and six others — Abdul Wajid, Mazhar Iqbal, Hamad Amin Sadiq, Shahid Jameel Riaz, Jamil Ahmed and Younis Anjum — have been charged with planning and executing the Mumbai attack in November, 2008 that left 166 people dead.
Lakhvi, 55, a close relative of LeT founder and Jamaat-Ud-Dawa (JuD) chief Hafiz Saeed, was arrested in December 2008 and was indicted along with the six others on November 25, 2009 in connection with the 26/11 attack case. The trial has been underway since 2009.
A Pakistani court had, on April 9, set free Lakhvi, a development which India said “eroded” the value of assurances repeatedly conveyed to it by Pakistan on cross-border terrorism.