The UN Security Council, led by France, United Kingdom and the United States, has rejected all Pakistan’s attempts to list Indians as designated terrorists under its 1267 Committee for Counterterrorism Sanctions. The UNSC committee decided to block the designations of Angara Appaji and Gobinda Patnaik on Wednesday, part of a group of four Indians that Pakistan alleged formed an Afghanistan-based “Indian terror syndicate” that was organising the banned terror groups Tehreek e Taliban Pakistan (TTP) and Jamaat-Ul-Ahrar (JuA) to carry out attacks in Pakistan.
Also read: India to protest Pakistan claims on terror at U.N.
India’s UN envoy T.S. Tirumurti hailed the UNSC decision. “Pakistan’s blatant attempt to politicize 1267 special procedure on terrorism by giving it a religious colour, has been thwarted by UN Security Council. We thank all those Council members who have blocked Pakistan’s designs,” he wrote in a tweet.
Two other Indian names proffered by Pakistan: Venumadhav Dongara was blocked by the US on June 19, and Ajoy Mistry had been blocked by US, UK, France, Germany and Belgium on July 16, respectively.
The same five countries had also placed a “hold” on Mr. Appaji and Mr. Patnaik’s names, asking Pakistan to furnish evidence of their involvement. Since the evidence was not provided, officials said the UNSC committee, which holds a “closed-door” session, decided to “block” or reject all the names. According to sources all five countries placing the hold also blocked it, although US, UK and France were prime movers, indicating that the other Permanent members, China and Russia, did not try to block the move by Pakistan.
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The rejection of Pakistan’s request comes a week after Pakistan claimed it had made a statement at an Open Debate of the Security Council on the Report of the Secretary-General on the Threats to International Peace and Security posed by Terrorism Actions, accusing India of “four types of terrorism”. However, the UNSC President had refused to take cognisance of the letter, as Pakistan is not a member of the UNSC.
Pakistan had named the four Indian nationals in an application to the UNSC in 2019, claiming that they now reside in India, and accused India of being a “state-sponsor of terrorism”. After the rejection of the first name on the list, of Venumadhav Dongara, the Pakistani Foreign Office had said it was “disappointed”.
“These individuals were financing, sponsoring and organising terrorism inside Pakistan by providing financial, technical and material support to terrorist groups including TTP, Jamaat-ul-Ahrar and others,” the Pakistani Foreign Office had said in June, a charge India has denied.
As The Hindu had reported earlier, Indian officials believe Pakistan’s increasing attempts to implicate India with accusations of terrorism, is part of a larger strategy to try and create controversies ahead of India’s tenure at the UN Security Council in 2021-2022.
