New Delhi: India has condemned China’s move to block Lashkar-e-Taiba militant Sajid Mir from being designated a “global terrorist” by the United Nations.
In a strongly-worded statement at the UN headquarters in New York, Joint Secretary (UN Political at MEA) Prakash Gupta said if there is failure to ban terrorists “for petty geopolitical interests”, then “we really do not have the genuine political will to sincerely fight this challenge of terrorism”.
He said the mastermind of the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks Sajid Mir was listed as a proscribed terrorist under the laws of India and the United States and of several other countries. “But when the proposal for listing Sajid Mir did not get through “the Global Listings of the UN Security Council Sanctions Regime” despite several member states cosponsoring it – “we have righteous reasons to believe that something is genuinely wrong with the global counter terrorism architecture”.
Gupta was speaking at a high-level conference on counter-terrorism after China blocked India and USA’s proposal on Mir.
The session was called “Strengthening Capacity Building Programmes: Making them Fit for Purpose to Meet Resilience Gaps“.
Gupta’s statement also came hours before Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s address at the UN on International Yoga Day on Wednesday morning.
The diplomat played a sound file recorded during the 2008 terror attacks on Mumbai and said of the voice: “This is Sajid Mir – directing the terrorists – on phone – to hunt down foreigners at the Taj hotel and kill them indiscriminately.”
“15 years after the Mumbai terror attacks, its masterminds have not yet been brought to justice. Some of them continue to roam scot-free—with full state hospitality,” he said.
Gupta added: “So the first and most critical gap – we feel addressing is: avoiding double standards and this self-defeating justification of good terrorists vs bad terrorists. A terror act is a terror act – period – any justification being used should not be countenanced upon by anybody.”
He told delegates what Narendra Modi said last year: “We consider that a single attack is one too many and even a single life lost is one too many. So we will not rest till terrorism is uprooted.”
The diplomat ended with: “India remains resolutely firm in walking the talk, when it comes to plugging the resilience gaps in countering terrorism.”
Breaking: India reacts on China blocking Sajid Mir's listing as Global Terrorist; Indian diplomat Prakash Gupta @PrakashMEA (Joint Secretary, UN Political at MEA) at UN counter terror meet terms the development done for "petty geopolitical interests" https://t.co/kLm1HFv9Rz pic.twitter.com/YPZJkroi66
— Sidhant Sibal (@sidhant) June 21, 2023
Sajid Mir, one of India’s most-wanted terrorists, is being hunted for his involvement in the 2008 terrorist attacks in Mumbai that began on 26 November. Mir served as the chief planner of the attacks, directing preparations and reconnaissance, and was one of the Pakistan-based controllers during the attacks, India maintains.
China, in recent months, has blocked several bids to designate terrorists based in Pakistan. In October last year, Beijing put on hold a proposal to list Talha Saeed, son of Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) chief Hafiz Saeed. This bid was moved by India and co-supported by the US, under the 1267 sanction regime.
Beijing has also protected LET member Shahid Mahmood, LeT and Jamaat-ud-Dawa (JuD) leader Abdul Rehman Makki, and Jaish-e Mohammed (JEM) chief Masood Azhar’s brother Abdul Rauf Azhar.