India on Friday warned the UN members against politicizing the UNSC sanctions against terrorists, arguing that it dents the credibility of the sanctions committee.
Speaking at a special meeting of the UNSC counter-terrorism committee in Mumbai, Indian Foreign Minister S. Jaishankar said that “the key conspirators and planners of the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks continue to remain protected and unpunished.”
“Objective and evidence-based proposals for the listing of terrorist groups, especially those that curb their access to financial resources, must be seen through,” the Indian minister emphasized.
The minister’s remarks come days after China put on hold a proposal moved by India and the US to blacklist Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT)** terrorist Shahid Mahmood. LeT was behind the November 26, 2008 Mumbai terror attacks.
This was the fourth proposal since June that has been placed on "technical hold" by China, which justifies its actions by saying that these are "always consistent with relevant rules and procedures."
Highlighting the diversified funding portfolio of terror groups, Jaishankar asked countries to find innovative solutions to tackle financing from new and emerging technologies such as virtual currencies.
The Ministry of Home Affairs said that terror bases across the Indo–Pak border went down to around 200 in mid-2021 from 600 in 2018, when FATF put its western neighbor on the “grey list.”
“The moment the talks started that the grey listing is about to end, which has ended now, it (terrorist bases) has gone up again by 50 percent. And we are expecting more scalable and more attacks on hard targets, and much more trouble (in Kashmir),” Safi Rizvi, a senior official of the Indian Home Ministry, said.
FATF removed Pakistan from the list of countries under “increased monitoring” — also known as the “grey List” -- on October 21 as the Paris-based intergovernmental organization was satisfied with the measures taken by Islamabad to strengthen effectiveness of anti-money laundering and counter-terrorist financing measures.
*a terrorist organization banned in Russia and many other states
**banned in Russia