The UN Security Council on Wednesday rejected Pakistan’s efforts to get two Indian nationals designated as terrorists under the 1267 sanctions committee process after Islamabad failed to produce evidence to back up its allegations.
The move by Pakistan was widely perceived as retaliation for India’s success last year in getting Jaish-e-Mohammed founder Masood Azhar listed as a global terrorist by the 1267 committee, which focuses on the designation of terrorists linked to al-Qaeda, Taliban and their affiliates.
Pakistan had launched an initiative to designate a total of four Indians as terrorists in 2019, telling the UN Security Council that they were allegedly involved in state-sponsored terrorism. Pakistan further alleged the men were part of an Afghanistan-based group that helped organise terror attacks by the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan and Jamaat-ul-Ahrar.
The efforts to designate two of the Indians – identified by Pakistan as Venumadhav Dongara and Ajoy Mistry – were rejected by the Security Council in June and July, largely because of efforts by the United States, Britain, France and Germany, people familiar with developments said on condition of anonymity.
The effort to designate two other Indians – identified by Islamabad as Gobinda Patnaik and Angara Appaji – were initially blocked through a “technical hold” by the US, the UK, Germany, France and Belgium as they wanted Pakistan to provide evidence to back its allegations, the people said.
During consultations behind closed doors on Wednesday, when the term of the hold ended, Pakistan’s effort to designate the remaining two Indians was rejected by the Security Council as it failed to furnish any proof, the people added.
India’s permanent representative to the UN, TS Tirumurti, tweeted: “Pakistan’s blatant attempt to politicise 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.”
Pakistan has repeatedly sought to rake up what it claims is India’s alleged role in fomenting terrorism on its soil at various UN bodies in recent months, but without any takers for its allegations. It even made a false claim that its envoy to the UN had delivered a statement at a UN Security Council meet on terrorism but this was later proved to be false.
Some of the Indians that Pakistan had sought to designate as terrorists had been working in Afghanistan in the past.