India helpless at UN as China Blocks move to list Pak terrorists

China on Wednesday put a hold on a proposal by India and the US at the United Nations to blacklist Pakistan-based militant Hafiz Talah Saeed, the son of Lashkar-e-Taiba chief Hafiz Saeed, in the second such move within two days. Hafiz Talha Saeed is a senior leader of the LeT and is the head of the cleric wing of the terrorist organisation. Earlier, China had put on hold a proposal to list Pakistan-based LeT leader Shahid Mahmood as a global terrorist.

Incidentally, it coincided with the visit of the UN Secretary General to India and the Financial Action Task Force plenary meeting in Paris. The move came amid the ongoing party Congress in Beijing.

India and the United States had moved a proposal to designate Mahmood as a global terrorist under the 1267 Al Qaeda Sanctions Committee of the UNSC.


The US Treasury Department designated Mahmood a global terrorist in December 2016.

Identified as a long-time senior LeT member, Mahmood has been a member of the terrorist group since 2007. In 2013, the US government's Treasury Department under the Obama administration identified him as an LeT publications wing member.

Mahmood is a close associate of Sajid Mir, the terror mastermind behind the 2008 Mumbai attacks and whose designation was also blocked by China at the UNSC in September.

People aware of the matter alleged Mahmood worked for "humanitarian wing" of the LeT, the Falah-i-Insaniat Foundation, which allegedly raises funds for terrorism under the guise of humanitarian causes. In 2016, they alleged, Mahmood visited Bangladesh to "distribute funds to a Burmese migrant camp" for facilitating LeT recruitment.