- Thursday, April 24, 2025
New Delhi said if it could not get established terrorists who have been banned across global landscapes proscribed by the UN, the political will to fight terrorism comes under questioning.
By: Shubham Ghosh
INDIA ON Wednesday (21) slammed China over its move to block a proposal at the United Nations to designate Sajid Mir, a member of the Pakistan-based terror outfit Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) — wanted for his involvement in the 2008 terror attacks in Mumbai that killed more than 160 people, including foreign nationals — as a global terrorist.
In a sharp reaction hours before prime minister Narendra Modi’s address at the UN on the International Day of Yoga, New Delhi said if the proposal to blacklist the terrorist did not get through despite several member-states co-sponsoring it, it has “righteous reasons” to hold that something is “genuinely wrong with the global counter-terrorism architecture”, NDTV reported.
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India jointly moved the proposal to blacklist Mir with the US under the 1267 Al Qaeda Sanctions Committee of the UN Security Council as a global terrorist besides subjecting him to an assets freeze, an arms embargo and imposing a ban on travel.
“If we cannot get established terrorists who have been banned across global landscapes proscribed by the United Nations – for petty geopolitical interests – then we really do NOT have the genuine political will to sincerely fight this challenge of terrorism,” New Delhi said.
Raising tough questions for the UN, India asked how was possible to have genuine listing proposals blocked without citing any reason in an age of accountability and transparency.
China, one of the permanent members of the UN Security Council, put on hold the proposal to designate the LeT member as a global terrorist at the global body last September. It has now followed it up by blocking the proposal.
Mir is one of New Delhi’s most wanted terrorists and has a US bounty of $5 million on his head for his role in the 26/11 terror massacre.
Last year, India played an audio clip at a meeting of the UN in Mumbai as proof of Mir’s involvement in the attacks. In the clip, he is heard directing the attack on Chabad House, one of the terror targets of 26/11.
It played the statement once again on Wednesday and urged the world to listen to the directions that Mir gave to kill foreigners at the Taj Hotel in India’s financial capital.
“Representing a pluralistic and diverse democracy, which is home to all religions of the world, it is our considered submission that the United Nations Global counter terrorism architecture must treat all religions equally and avoid any selective singling out that tends to elevate one religion over another,” New Delhi said.
In June 2022, Mir was given a sentence of 15 years by an anti-terror court in Pakistan in a terror-financing case.
