About 150 terrorist entities, individuals based or linked with Pakistan blacklisted by UN

About 150 terrorist entities and individuals, either based or with links to Pakistan have been blacklisted by the UN, with the latest addition being of Abdul Rehman Makki, the Lashkar-e-Taiba deputy chief designated by the Security Council’s Al Qaeda sanctions committee.

The UN Security Council’s 1267 ISIL (Da’esh) and Al Qaeda Sanctions Committee added 68-year-old Makki to its list of designated terrorists on Monday, subjecting him to assets freeze, travel ban and arms embargo.

As per the Al Qaeda Sanctions Committee list, nearly 150 terror entities and individuals blacklisted by the UN are either based in Pakistan, have links in the country or operate from the Pakistan-Afghanistan border areas.

Among those who have been blacklisted are Pakistan-based terror group Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) leader and Mumbai terror attack mastermind Hafiz Saeed, a top commander of the LeT and key conspirator of the 26/11 Mumbai terror attack Zaki-ur Rehman Lakhvi, founder of Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) terror group Masood Azhar and Fugitive underworld don Dawood Ibrahim, who has addresses in Pakistan.

Last year, India said during an open briefing of the Counter-Terrorism Committee that Pakistan, the “epicentre of terrorism nurtures terrorist entities with links to more than 150 UN-designated entities and individuals.”

“The world had witnessed the horrors of the 2008 Mumbai terror attack, the 2016 Pathankot terror attack, and the 2019 Pulwama terrorist attack. We all know from where the perpetrators of these attacks came from,” Counsellor in India’s Permanent Mission to the UN Rajesh Parihar said as he delivered India’s national statement at the open briefing on the work of the Counter-Terrorism Committee Executive Directorate (CTED) with the Member States of South and South-East Asia.

In a reference to Pakistan, he had said it was “regretful" that victims of these dastardly attacks are yet to get justice, and the perpetrators, facilitators and financiers of these attacks continue to walk free and “still enjoying State support and hospitality”. Makki’s listing comes seven months after China put a hold on a joint proposal by India and the US to designate the head of the political affairs wing of JuD/LeT and the brother-in-law of LeT chief Saeed.

Decisions to list individuals and entities under the 1267 sanctions committee are made through consensus.

Of the 15 Security Council members that make up the Al Qaeda Sanctions Committee, veto-wielding permanent member China was the sole holdout during the process to list Makki.