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Over the past few years, India has stepped up coordination with Western partners such as the United States and France on the UN Security Council listing of terrorist organizations, as the measure has become a key tool for pressuring countries to take action against designated terrorist groups. personal.
Much of these efforts are aimed at listing top leaders of Pakistani terrorist groups such as Lashkarta (LeT) and Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM), which have engaged in cross-border terrorism against India for years. decades. When individuals or groups are listed under various UN Security Council sanctions regimes, they are subject to asset freezes, travel bans and arms embargoes.
Such listings rarely result in the arrest or prosecution of designated individuals. Mob boss Dawood Ibrahim, for example, was designated a global terrorist by the UN Security Council’s al-Qaeda sanctions regime in 2003, but Indian officials say he still lives and operates in Pakistan.
However, these lists are a key tool for exerting pressure on UN member states, especially when used in conjunction with other mechanisms such as the Financial Action Task Force (FATF). It is also part of the overall coordination of counter-terrorism between India and its Western partners.
The U.N. Security Council’s list of terrorists was in the spotlight again this week after China blocked India and the U.S. from designating the names of Lashkar Lashkar operative Sajid Mir, who was responsible for the 2008 Mumbai terror attack. A key figure, he commanded 10 terrorists. The team was responsible for the carnage in the country’s financial center.
China initially placed a “technical hold” on Mir’s listing last year, a move reminiscent of Beijing’s nearly decade-long delay in the appointment of JeM founder Masood Azhar until a softening in 2019.
India has also designated 54 individuals and 44 terrorist organizations under its domestic law, the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA). The designation under UAPA helps support the need for similar listings under partner countries’ domestic laws and the United Nations Security Council, the people said.
The latest additions to the list of terrorist groups include the Rebel Front (TRF), a Lashkar Lashkar-a-Tarif proxy formed in 2019 and accused of carrying out attacks in Jammu and Kashmir, and the People’s Anti-Fascist Front (PAFF). JeM, also founded in 2019, has been accused of radicalizing young people.
The list of terrorist organizations also includes Lashkar Lashkar, JEM, Harkat-ul-Mujahideen, Hizb-ul-Mujahideen, United Liberation Front of Assam (ULFA), National Democratic Front of Bodolan (NDFB), Al Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent (AQIS), Islamic State (IS), Bangladesh Mujahideen and Khalistan Tiger Force (KTF).
Prominent terrorist leaders listed by UAPA include Lashkar Lashkar founder Hafiz Saeed, his son Talha Saeed, JEM chairman Masood Azar, Lashkar Lashkar operations chief Kiir Rahman Rahvi, Daoud Ibrahim, one of the masterminds of the Mumbai attack, and his assistant Sheikh Shakir (aka Jota Shakir), Sajid Mir , Babar Khalsa International leader Wadawa Singh Babar and Sikh Struggle for Justice leader Gulpatwant Singh Pannu.
The list of 54 terrorists designated by UAPA also includes several top leaders of Lashkar Lashkar, JEM and Mujahideen.
“All of these measures help fight terrorist groups and individuals by making it harder for individuals on the list to travel and access funds,” said a person familiar with the matter.
It was also pointed out that the public appearances and activities of Lashkar-e-Tarif and JEM leaders dropped dramatically after Pakistan was placed on the FATF’s “gray list” in 2018 for failing to do enough to combat terror financing and money laundering. Pakistan is due to be removed from the FATF list of countries to increase surveillance of financial transactions in 2022, as members of the international watchdog use the time to pressure Islamabad to do more to fight the terrorist group.
Although Pakistan never took action against Lashkar Lashkar founder Hafiz Saeed in connection with the Mumbai attack for lack of evidence, authorities were forced to prosecute him in several terror financing cases, leading to his jail term, according to Reportedly serving time. Pressure from FATF has also led Lashkar and JEM to push many cadres into Afghanistan, where they remain.
India used the Sajidmir case to re-emphasize its call for an overhaul of the UN Security Council sanctions regime, including improving working methods to ensure that individuals and groups are designated on the basis of truthful and evidence-based objective recommendations, and calls for blocking proposals from UN Member States rationale – this is not needed in the existing setup. The Indian side also said the proposal to block the designations should not be submitted on an anonymous basis, in an apparent attempt to thwart China’s multiple designations of Pakistani terrorists.
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