The United Nations Security Council on Wednesday rejected the last two names of Indian nationals that Pakistan had proposed to be listed as designated terrorists under its 1267 Committee for Counterterrorism Sanctions.
The rejection was supported by France, the United Kingdom and the United States.
The UNSC committee decided to block the designations of Angara Appaji and Gobinda Patnaik who were part of a group of four Indians that Pakistan alleged formed an Afghanistan-based “Indian terror syndicate” that was organising the banned terror groups Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) and Jamaat-Ul-Ahrar to carry out attacks in Pakistan.
Pakistan had also accused them of specific attacks, including the Peshawar army school attack in which 150 people, mostly students, were killed.
India’s UN envoy T.S. Tirumurti hailed the UNSC decision in a tweet. “Pakistan’s blatant attempt to politicize 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,” he wrote.
The listing of two other Indian names offered by Pakistan, Venumadhav Dongara and Ajoy Mistry, had already been blocked earlier this year.
Venumadhav Dongara was blocked by the US on June 19 and Ajoy Mistry was blocked by US, UK, France, Germany and Belgium on July 16, respectively.
The same five countries had also placed a technical hold on Appaji and Patnaik’s names, asking Pakistan to furnish evidence of their involvement. Since the evidence was not provided, officials said the UNSC committee, which holds a “closed-door” session, decided to “block” or reject all the names.
Pakistan had named the four Indian nationals in an application to the 1267 UNSC sanctions panel in 2019, claiming that they now reside in India, and accused India of being a “state-sponsor of terrorism”. They were later evacuated from Afghanistan by India as a precaution for their safety, as per reports.
There has been no response from Pakistan so far. Earlier in June, when the US had blocked the first listing proposed by Pakistan, Islamabad had expressed disappointment and hoped that the rest of the other names would be considered in an “objective and transparent” manner.
“These individuals were financing, sponsoring and organising terrorism inside Pakistan by providing financial, technical and material support to terrorist groups including TTP, Jamaat-ul-Ahrar and others,” the Pakistani Foreign Office had said in June, a charge India has denied.
With inputs from The Wire and The Hindu
