New Delhi (Sputnik): Indian Security analyst Qamar Agha sees Pakistan's refusal of a visa to the UN officials as a manifestation of its fears that Hafiz Saeed could spill the bean on his links to the government. According to media reports, a team of United Nations officials sought visa from the Pakistani consulate in New York to visit Pakistan to interview Hafiz Saeed in response to his proposal to remove his name from UNSC 1267 sanctions list of UN recognised terrorists.
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"In the present circumstances, terror outfits such as Jaish, Lashkar, etc are against the Pakistani government due the cracked down by the government under intense international pressure after the Pulwama terror attack. Pakistan government fear that Hafiz Saeed could share several incriminating details with the UN team, therefore they denied visa to them. In fact, the visit of the UN team is not safe when terror outfits like Jaish-e-Mohammed are criticising Pakistani government for buckling under international pressure. Even former President Pervez Musharraf had admitted that Pakistani intelligence agencies use terror outfits in a proxy war against India," Qamar Agha told Sputnik.
"Pakistan is also concerned that visit of the UN team could also affect Jaish-e-Mohammad founder Masood Azhar's case in the UN as the US, France and UK have put a proposal on proscribing Azhar as a global terrorist under UNSC 1267 resolution," Robinder Sachdev, Director of Imagindia told Sputnik.
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The UN wanted to interview Hafiz Saeed in response to his request for removing him from the list of global terrorists. However, with Pakistan denying visa to the officials, the world body has dismissed Saeed's request. After being identified as the mastermind of the 2008 Mumbai terror attack in which 166 persons were killed, Hafiz Saeed was enlisted as a global terrorist by the UN in 2010.
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