In view of the repeated Chinese duplicity on the issue of combating Islamic fundamentalist terrorism which originates from Pakistan, there is a question mark over the vow taken by the five-nation BRICS grouping on June 2, 2023, say analysts.
In recent years, Beijing has repeatedly blocked proposals moved by the United Nations to declare as ‘global terrorist’ leaders of terror groups based in Pakistan, the all-weather friend of China.
Taking advantage of a long rope arranged for them by Beijing, they sit in Pakistan and plan terror plots against India and the United States.
The Foreign Ministers of the five nation grouping BRICS comprising Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa in a joint statement titled ‘The Cape of Good Hope’expressed strong condemnation of terrorism, “whenever, wherever and by whomsoever committed.”
The signatories “are committed to combating terrorism in all its forms and manifestations, including the cross-border movement of terrorists, and terrorism-financing networks and safe havens.”
The veiled reference to Pakistan that the joint statement made was certainly a diplomatic victory for India at the BRICS platform, but in view of its past stand the commitment made by China at the BRICs meet sounds hollow.
The U S. sanctioned Abdul Rauf Azhar in 2010. The U.S. Department of Treasury accused Abdul Rauf Azhar of urging Pakistanis to engage in militant activities.
While the joint statement did not name any country, India in the past has described Pakistan as the “epicentre of terrorism” where terrorists like Hafiz Saeed, Masood Azhar, Sajid Mir and Dawood Ibrahim are sheltered.
Addressing the BRICS meet, External Affairs Minister of India S. Jaishankar correctly described terrorism as among the key threats to international peace and security and said all nations must take resolute measures against this menace, including its financing and propaganda: pointing to the role of Islamabad in exporting terrorism.
In a veiled reference to China, he said: “”For two decades, we have heard calls for reform of multilateral institutions, only to be continuously disappointed. It is, therefore, imperative that BRICS members demonstrate sincerity in regard to reforming global decision making, including that of the UN Security Council.”
Viewed in the context of China putting on hold a proposal by India and the United States in October 2022 to list Lashkar-e-Taiba leader Shahid Mahmood as a global terrorist, the commitment made by China at the BRICS summit sounds like an empty promise.
In fact, Shahid Mahmood’s was the fourth instance in four months that Beijing had blocked bids to blacklist Pakistan-based terrorists at the forum of the United Nations.
The U.S. Department of Treasury in December 2016 sanctioned Shahid Mahmood to disrupt the fundraising and support network of Laskar-e-Taiba.
He was responsible for raising and moving funds to support the operations of the terrorist group.
“In August 2013, Shahid Mahmood was instructed to forge covert links with Islamic organizations in Bangladesh and Burma. In 2011, Mahmood claimed that LeT’s primary concern should be attacking India and America.”
He had travelled to Bangladesh to distribute funds to a Myanmarese migrant camp for the purpose of recruitment in the LeT.
In June 2022, China put on hold a joint proposal by India and the United States to blacklist Pakistan-based terrorist Abdul Rehman Makki under the 1267 Al-Qaida Sanctions Committee of the United Nations Security Council.
He is the brother-in-law of LeT chief and mastermind of 26/11 Mumbai attack Hafiz Saeed.
Makki is a designated terrorist in India and is wanted for the Red Fort attack in Delhi in 2000, the Mumbai attack in 2008 and attacks on security forces in Jammu and Kashmir.
In January 2023, however, India secured a major diplomatic victory at the United Nations after China was forced to lift its technical hold on the way to declare Abdul Rehman Makki a global terrorist and the United Nations Security Council listed him accordingly.
This time, India got 14 of the 15 members of the United Nations Security Council on its side, forcing Beijing to give up its technical hold.
In May 2019, too, India secured a diplomatic win at the U.N. when the international body declared Jaish-e-Mohammed chief Masood Azhar a global terrorist; a decade after New Delhi had first approached the United Nations on the issue.
Masood Azhar was sanctioned by the USA in 2010, accused of the 1999 hijacking of an Indian Airlines plane to Kandahar, the 2001 attack on Indian Parliament and the 2016 attack on an Indian Air Force installation at Pathankot in India.
In response to a question by the Indian news agency PTI in New York on the issue of repeated holds and blocks on proposals to list terrorists under the U. N. sanctions regime, Jaishankar had replied: “We do believe that in any process if any party is taking a decision, they need to be transparent about it. So the idea that something is blocked without assigning a reason, sort of challenges common sense.”
China had four times thwarted attempts by the United Nations to put him on the list of global terrorists, in 2009, 2010, 2016 and 2017.
Then in August 2022 China again put on hold a proposal by the United States and India to blacklist the senior leader of Pakistan-based terror organization Jaish-e-Mohammed Abdul Rauf Azhar as a global terrorist and subject him to asset freeze, travel ban and arms embargo.
The U S. sanctioned Abdul Rauf Azhar in 2010. The U.S. Department of Treasury accused Abdul Rauf Azhar of urging Pakistanis to engage in militant activities.
He had served as the acting leader of JeM in 2007, as one of the most senior commanders of JeM in India. In 2008, he was assigned to organize suicide attacks in India.
In September 2022, again, Beijing put on hold a move by the United States and co-sponsored by India to designate as a global terrorist Laskar-e-Taiba terrorist Sajid Mir, wanted for his involvement in the 26/11 Mumbai terrorist attacks.
Mir is one of the most wanted terrorists in India and has a bounty of $5 million on his head placed by the U.S. for his role in the Mumbai terror attacks.
It will be wrong to assume that Beijing has subsequently withdrawn its technical hold on measures by the United Nations against some of the notorious terrorists sheltered in Pakistan because of a change of heart.
It was rather to help its ally Islamabad to exit from the grey list of the Financial Action Task Force, an intergovernmental organization set up by G 7 countries, to develop policies to stop money laundering and terror funding.
All-weather friend of China, Pakistan too does not have any scruple. Authorities in Islamabad had earlier claimed that LeT leader and chief planner of Mumbai attack Sajid Mir had died, Western countries had remained unconvinced and demanded proof of his death.
This had become a major point in the adverse assessment of Pakistan in FATF.
In a broadside against China, Indian External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar had said in a U.N. General Assembly session: “The United Nations responds to terrorism by sanctioning its perpetrators. Those who politicize the UNSC 1267 Sanctions regime, sometimes even to the extent of defending proclaimed terrorists, do so at their own peril. They advance neither their own interest, nor indeed their reputation.”
China, in a way, is now paying the price of sponsoring terrorist groups in Pakistan which target the USA and India. “Beijing’s myopic view and double standards on terrorism may be backfiring,”as columnist Srikanth Kondapalli has observed.
In response to a question by the Indian news agency PTI in New York on the issue of repeated holds and blocks on proposals to list terrorists under the U. N. sanctions regime, Jaishankar had replied: “We do believe that in any process if any party is taking a decision, they need to be transparent about it. So the idea that something is blocked without assigning a reason, sort of challenges common sense.”
Subsequent events have proved the warning by S. Jaishankar to be almost prophetic.
Chinese nationals in recent years have been subjected to terror attacks in Afghanistan in recent years. Islamic State (Khorasan) extremists are suspected to have carried out these attacks in collusion with the terrorist state of Pakistan.
On January 11, 2023, a suicide bomber exploded himself just outside the Foreign Ministry office in Kabul, targeting a Chinese delegation which had gone there to meet Taliban officials. Twenty people were killed in the attack.
Just a month ago, on December 10, 2022, IS-K militants stormed a hotel in Kabul frequented by Chinese people, injuring at least five Chinese nationals.
IS-K does not want Chinese presence and wants to scare away Chinese investments, say think-tanks, but the complicity of Pakistan in the activities of the IS-K is evident.
IS-K is said to be a creation of the Inter Service Intelligence of Pakistan which also sponsors terrorist activities in India with the help of terror groups based in Pakistan. “They want to spoil the party between the Taliban and China.”
In fact, the Taliban themselves had released about 2,000 IS-K fighters from prison after the departure of U.S. troops from Afghanistan. Many IS-K members had subsequently taken shelter in Pakistan.
It has been suggested that Islamabad does not want anyone but itself controlling Afghanistan.
Such attacks are a way of preventing direct contacts between the Chinese and the Afghans.
These terrorist attacks are a warning sign sent to the Chinese. Following the hotel attack, China had asked its citizens to leave Afghanistan immediately.
The memory of an attack in 2004 near Kunduz in northern Afghanistan on Chinese railway workers in which 11 Chinese nationals were killed is still fresh in the memory of Beijing.
China, in a way, is now paying the price of sponsoring terrorist groups in Pakistan which target the USA and India. “Beijing’s myopic view and double standards on terrorism may be backfiring,”as columnist Srikanth Kondapalli has observed.
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