India Slams China’s Move Blocking Bid To Blacklist Pak Terrorist Sajid Mir, Linked to 26/11 Attacks

India has harshly criticized China at the United Nations for blocking plans to call Lashkar-e-Tayyiba’s Sajid Mir, who is also accused in the 26/11 Mumbai attack, a “global terrorist” for “petty geopolitical interests.” Prakash Gupta, Joint Secretary of MEA, said, “If we can’t get known terrorists who have been banned all over the world to be put on the security council’s list for pure geopolitical reasons, then we don’t really have the real political will we need to really fight this problem of terrorism.”

“As a pluralistic and diverse democracy that is home to all religions of the world, it is our considered opinion that the United Nations Global Counter-Terrorism Architecture must treat all religions equally and avoid any selective singling out that tends to elevate one religion over another,” he said.

China stopped the United States and India from making Sajid Mir a global terrorist on Tuesday. Mir is a top Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) fighter in Pakistan. He is one of India’s most wanted terrorists and planned the 2008 Mumbai attacks.

The US and India asked Beijing to name Mir a global terrorist under the UN Security Council’s 1267 Al Qaeda Sanctions Committee and freeze his assets, stop him from traveling, and put an arms embargo on him. However, Beijing said no.

In September of last year, it was found out that China had stopped the United Nations from calling Mir a global terrorist. Beijing has now put a stop to the plan.

Mir is one of India’s most wanted terrorists, and the US has put a $5 million reward on his head because he helped the Pakistan-based LeT terrorists attack Mumbai on November 26, 2011.

In June of last year, a court in Pakistan sentenced him to more than 15 years in jail for financing terrorism. Pakistan is fighting to get off the “grey list” of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), which is based in Paris.

Pakistani officials had said Mir was dead before, but people in the West were not sure and needed proof. When FATF looked at Pakistan’s success on the action plan in 2021, this problem became a major sticking point.

The US State Department said, “Mir was LeT’s operations manager for the attacks and played a key role in planning, preparing, and carrying them out.”

Beijing is always there for Islamabad, so it has often stopped the UN Security Council’s sanctions committee from putting Pakistan-based terrorists on a blacklist.