Azhar Blacklisting: UN Panel to consider Indian proposal
Masood Azhar -the chief of Jaish-e-Mohammad and a resident of Bahawalpur, Pakistan has been accused by the Indian agencies of orchestrating several terror attacks on Indian soils including the one on Parliament in 2001, Pathankot airbase on January 2 and the latest one at Uri which claimed lives of 19 Indian soldiers. Azhar is said to run a charity under the banner of Al Rehmat Trust to cover his illegal ventures.
The Home Ministry has formed a special 3-member Committee to speeden the process required to get Masood Azhar and Shafi Armar who is former member of Indian Mujahideen and is currently the media chief of Islamic State and Hizbul Mujahideen Chief Syed Salahuddin on the UN List of proscribed terrorist. Once successful, this will lead to immediate asset freeze and travel bans on them respectively. The list also includes the name of Abdul Rauf who is Azhar’s younger brother. Rauf was directing the terrorists on phone while they carried out an attack on the Pathankot air base. Rauf is also said to play a major role in the hijack of IC-814 in 1999.
Indian Committee is all set to bring to the notice of 1267 Taliban/Al-Qaeda sanctions Committee about the close ties of Azhar with Taliban. The Indian side has concrete evidences to substantiate the claim. The National Investigation Agency which is probing the Pathankot and Uri assaults have found critical leads which point to direct involvement of Azhar in the strikes. The Committee will apprise the UN Agency that the terrorists who had given shape to the Pathankot and Uri attacks were members of Jaish-e-Mohammad and had received tactical training, use of weapons and psychological warfare from Pakistan terrorist training camps.
Resolution 1267
The Resolution along with all its amendments gave shape to the UN sanctions Committee which consists of all members of the Security Council. The Committee makes a list of all persons, groups and organisations who have any association with noted terrorist outfits like Al-Qaeda, the Taliban and Osama bin Laden. The Committee pressurises the concerned states to bring the designated individuals or groups to task, penalise them and start relevant proceedings against them. In addition to 1267, Resolution 1373, mandates the states to criminalise all support and financing of terrorist activities. It also urges states to prepare their respective blacklists. Despite the huge use to counter terror, there has been opposition to the whole process of blacklisting. The critics have labelled the latter as breach of fundamental rights as the blacklisting decisions are usually based on secret intelligence which the affected individuals and the courts who are involved in review of the implementation can never access. This robs the affected individuals from their basic right to a fair trial. Thus, blacklisting is widely accepted as a Kafkaesque reality for the ones who are affected. Furthermore, Resolution 1373 has rested its criminalisation in many cases on the pretext of geopolitical, foreign policy or diplomatic interests.
The diplomatic pressure and success of India will be tested on a world stage on Monday when the UN Committee comes up with its decision. It will play an important role in isolating Pakistan on an international scale. India has repeatedly criticised the UNSC for not being able to designate terrorists under the Sanctions regime. It also voiced its concern about the lack of transparency and being selective in its approach. This was in reference to the technical hold being put by China on Azhar’s name earlier this year and the extension of the same presently. India found it quite disturbing that while Jaish-e-Mohammad has been listed as a blacklisted terrorist outfit by UNSC in 2001 yet there has been a technical hold placed on the blacklisting of group’s leader.
