UNITED NATIONS: China has come to the rescue of Pakistan-based terrorists at the UN again. On Wednesday, China put on hold a proposal by India and the US at the United Nations to blacklist Pakistan-based terrorist Hafiz Talah Saeed, the son of Lashkar-e-Taiba chief Hafiz Saeed. It's the second such move by China within two days.
Just a day earlier, China had also blocked the listing of
Shahid Mahmood, who had been designated by the US in 2016 for facilitating LeT fundraising and other support networks, by UNSC's Al-Qaeda (Dae'sh) and ISIL sanctions committee, also known as the UNSC 1267 Committee.
For the fifth time since June this year, China has put on hold a US-India proposal for a UN ban on a Pakistan-based operative of terror group Lashkar-e-Taiba.
Who is Hafiz Talha SaeedHafiz Talha Saeed, 46, is a key leader of the dreaded terrorist group LeT and the son of 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks mastermind Hafiz Saeed.
In April this year, he had been declared a terrorist by the Indian government.
In a notification, India's home ministry had said that Hafiz Talha Saeed has been actively involved in recruitment, fund collection, and planning and executing attacks by the Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) in India and Indian interests in Afghanistan.
He has also been actively visiting various LeT centres across
Pakistan, and during his sermons propagating for jihad against India, Israel, the United States of America and Indian interests in other western countries, it had stated.
Hafiz Talha Saeed is a senior leader of the LeT and is the head of the cleric wing of the terrorist organisation.
China on Tuesday put a hold on a proposal by India and the US at the United Nations to list Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba leader Shahid Mahmood as a global terrorist.
Beijing placed a hold on the proposal by India and the US to designate Mahmood, 42, as a global terrorist under the 1267 Al Qaeda Sanctions Committee of the UN Security Council.
China's 'double standards'While China's hold was a foregone conclusion, India is hoping it will again attract international attention towards what the government routinely describes as Beijing's "double standards" in the global war against terrorism. The latest block also came at a time when UNSG Antonio Guterres is in India. Guterres was paying homage to the victims of the 26/11 attacks in Mumbai when news broke about China's hold on the ban.
India has escalated the issue on multilateral platforms. While foreign minister S Jaishankar slammed China in his UNGA address, PM Narendra Modi called upon all to not politicise the designation of global terrorists at the Brics summit earlier this year.
(With inputs from agencies)