United Nations (The Hawk): By shielding four important leaders of the Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) organisation that carried out the 26/11 Mumbai attack from UN penalties, China has continued to ignore the other Security Council members and the overwhelming anti-terrorism opinion.
At least 166 people were killed in the incident 14 years ago, and Beijing is collaborating with Islamabad to undermine counterterrorism measures against the terrorists who carried out the massacre and are based in Pakistan.
Sajid Mir, the group's commander who oversaw the 26/11 attack, deputy chief Abdur Rehman Makki, deputy chief of the LeT front Falah-I-Insaniyat Foundation Shahid Mahmood, and LeT commander Hafiz Talha Saeed, the son of LeT chief Hafiz Muhammed Saeed, were the four members of LeT who received China's umbrella this year.
Additionally, China halted sanctions against Abdul Rauf, the deputy commander of the terrorist organisation Jaish-e-Mohammed.
Prior to adopting a hard approach in support of other LeT leaders in a show of sympathy with Pakistan, China had initially permitted eight LeT leaders to be sanctioned: four in the month following the 26/11 incident and four later.
According to India's Permanent Representative Ruchira Kamboj, "Our efforts to prosecute the perpetrators and enablers of these terror incidents were obstructed in the past for political reasons."
She claimed that "these actors" were still at large and planning other cross-border strikes against her nation.
John Kelley, the political coordinator for the US Permanent Mission, expressed regret at the same meeting that only one organisation had been added to this year's sanctions list and emphasised that "the important work of this committee must remain free from politicisation that only benefits the terrorists."
The LeT commanders and another terrorist with ties to Pakistan were spared, but the committee, paralysed by China's obstinacy, was only able to add Khatiba al-Tawhid wal-Jihad, a terror organisation operating in Syria, to the sanctions list this year.
The panel of the Security Council, known as the 1267 Sanctions Committee for the resolution establishing it, imposes sanctions on individuals and organisations for terrorist activities involving al-Qaeda, the Islamic State, and affiliated groups like the LeT. These sanctions include travel bans and financial restrictions.
The committee consists of all 15 Security Council members and grants each of them the ability to veto or put a hold on sanctions.
An audio tape of Mir leading the 26/11 terrorists at the Jewish centre was played to draw attention to the role of the terrorist under Beijing protection at the UN during the Security Council's Counter-Terrorism Committee (CTC) meeting last month in Mumbai.
External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar stated during the CTC's special meeting held in the Taj Mahal Palace Hotel, the terrorists' preferred killing ground, that "the primary conspirators and architects of the 26/11 assaults continue to remain protected and unpunished."
This, according to him, "undermines our collective credibility and our common interests," and the mission isn't complete until "the masterminds and perpetrators of this attack" are brought to court.
"That is what the US has been working to do, together with India and other partners for the last 14 years," US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a video message to the gathering. "Because when we allow the architects of these attacks to go unpunished, we send a message to terrorists everywhere that their heinous crimes will be tolerated."
China in December 2008 did not obstruct the sanctions on LeT president Saeed, operations chief Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi, finance chief Haji Muhammad Ashraf, and financier Mahmoud Mohammad Ahmed Bahaziq during the initial outburst of global outrage over the atrocity of the 26/11 incident.
Four further LeT members were later added to the list: Hafiz Abdul Salam Bhattvi and Malik Zafar Iqbal Shahbaz in 2012, as well as Muhammad Arif Qasmani and Mohammad Yahya Aziz in 2009.
(Inputs from Agencies)
