The move was blocked by 5 members of the UNSC council USA, UK, France, Germany, and Belgium.On the development, India’s Permanent Representative to UN, T S Tirumurti tweeted “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”
Backed by longtime ally China, Pakistan had proposed the designation of four Indian nationals in 2019 under the UN 1267 Sanctions List. Of the four names, UNSC had rejected two names earlier and the remaining two listing proposals of Angara Appaji and Gobinda Pattnaik Duggivalasa were blocked on Wednesday. Sources said that no evidence was found to substantiate the Pakistani claim.
Earlier, France, along with other UNSC members had given Pakistan time to provide evidence but Islamabad failed to substantiate its claim with tangible evidence. A hold was put for Pakistan to come up with more evidence, but even that did not help Islamabad in proving its point.
The Pakistani move was largely believed as a tit for tat tactics as it came immediately after India succeeded in getting Jaish-e-Mohammed chief Masood Azhar designated as a global terrorist on May 1, last year.
The latest rebuking of Pakistan in the UNSC comes in almost a week’s time. Last Wednesday the United Nations Security Council had disowned the Pakistani Envoy’s controversial statement and said it will not go on record.
Last week, Pakistan’s Permanent Representative to UN Munir Akram had claimed to have made a statement at UNSC, which was reportedly filled with misinformation against India. At the outset, the claims sounded dubious as non-members like Pakistan were not allowed in the meeting at the UN Security Council on Monday.
The Indian Mission at the UN was quick to react. Soon after the Pakistan’s statement, Tirumurti had tweeted saying, “We have seen a statement put out by the Pakistan Mission to the UN, claiming that these remarks were made by the Permanent Representative of Pakistan at the UN Security Council. We fail to comprehend where exactly did the Permanent Representative of Pakistan make his statement since the Security Council Session today was not open to non-members of the Security Council”. This was followed by a series of rebuttals to Pakistan’s fake assertions made in the garb of Statement to the UNSC.
By Abhishek Jha