New Delhi: The United Nations Security Council’s 1267 sanctions sub-committee on Wednesday rejected the last two names of Indian nationals that Pakistan had proposed to be brought under the sanctions regime against terrorists and terror groups.
Last year, Pakistan had moved the 1267 UNSC sanctions panel to include the names of four Indian nationals, all of whom were working in Afghanistan with private companies. They were all evacuated from Afghanistan as a precaution for their safety, as per reports.
India’s permanent representative to UN, T.S. Tirumurti tweeted that Pakistan’s attempt to “politicise” the 1267 committee process had been blocked by several council members
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. @MEAIndia @DrSJaishankar @PMOIndia @harshvshringla
— PR UN Tirumurti (@ambtstirumurti) September 2, 2020
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Pakistan’s allegation against all of the four Indian nationals was that they were funding Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan and other proscribed terror groups. It had also accused them of specific attacks, including the Peshawar army school attack in which 150 people, mostly students, were killed.
The US had put a technical hold on the listing earlier – and the listing of Venumadhav Dongara and Ajoy Mistry had already been blocked earlier this year. On Wednesday, the two remaining names – Angara Appaji and Gobinda Pattnaik Duggivalasa – were also blocked.
Sources told The Wire that five countries who had earlier put a ‘hold’ on the listing had likely blocked the listing proposed by Pakistan. The five countries were the US, UK, France, Germany and Belgium, it is learnt.
All decisions in the committee are reached by consensus. As per the guidelines, a council member can put a hold on a proposal. If the hold is not withdrawn within the prescribed period, the listing is rejected.
According to a Hindustan Times report in July, Appaji Angara, a resident of Andhra Pradesh, was working in a bank in Afghanistan, when he was taken out from Kabul in January this year. Duggivalasa, an Odisha native, was working as the president of a capacity-building organisation in Kabul.
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.
Indian government sources had claimed that Pakistan’s decision to submit these four names was to gain parity with India after the UNSC panel approved the listing of Jaish-e-Mohammed chief Masood Azhar. China had previously put a hold on the listing of Azhar four times, before joining the consensus in May 2019.
