Islamabad is trying to double down on India after New Delhi succeeded in getting Jaish-e-Mohammed chief Masood Azhar designated as a global terrorist under the UNSC 1267 sanctions committee in May last year. These two Indian nationals are amongst those who were operating projects in Afghanistan.
On Wednesday, the US, UK, France, Germany and Belgium decided to block Pakistan’s move to list two Indian nationals as global terrorists falling under the UN Security Council 1267 sanctions committee.
Recently, they had put a hold on the listing, to buy time to gather evidence. With no evidence gathered, the five countries chose to block the motion.US, UK and France are permanent members of the UNSC, Germany and Belgium are non-permanent members.
The listing requests involved two Indian nationals, named Gobinda Patnaik Duggivalasa and Appaji Angara.
India’s Permanent Representative to the UN in New York, T S Tirumurti wrote through a tweet on Wednesday, “Pakistan’s blatant attempt to politicize 1267 special procedure on terrorism by giving it a religious colour, has been thwarted by UN Security Council. We thank all those Council members who have blocked Pakistan’s designs.”
With this, Pakistan has sought to get four Indian nationals listed as global terrorists. All four, who were working in Afghanistan, have left the country and returned to India.
Angara was working as a software developer in a bank in Kabul. Pakistan had accused him of a terrorist raid on Mall Road in Lahore on February 13, 2017, along with Jamat-ul-Ahrar, a group of Tehreek-e-Taliban, Pakistan. In the dossier presented to the 1267 committee, Angara has been accused of the shooting on Army School in Peshawar on December 16, 2014.
Duggivalasa served as head of a company involved in capacity-building projects in Afghanistan. He was held for a terror attack on Siraj Raisani, a Pakistani politician, on July 13, 2018 in Mastung, Balochistan, in which 160 people were killed.The two Indian nationals were among those who were working on projects in Afghanistan.
