India should prepare a list of terrorists taking shelter in Pakistan, steps should be taken to politicize UN sanctions

A UN Security Council parliamentary panel said India should list four Pakistan-based terrorists, including Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) leader Hafiz Talha Saeed and Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) leader Abdul Rauf Asghar. And steps should be taken to depoliticize the sanctions. In its report on countering global terrorism presented in Parliament, the Parliamentary Committee on Foreign Affairs said that the Islamic State and al-Qaeda are aligning with regional terrorist groups such as LeT and JeM and are wrong. They are trying to exploit the opportunity of communal tension to instigate attacks in India through information and radicalization practices.

Since 2016, Islamic State has been unsuccessfully trying to expand its territory in Jammu and Kashmir as part of the so-called Islamic State of Khorasan Province (ISKP). The report said that in order to show its presence in Indian territory, Islamic State-Core issued propaganda establishing Wilaya Hind in May 2019. The committee’s recommendations come in the backdrop of China consistently blocking efforts by India and its Western allies such as France and the US to sanction Pakistan-based terrorists at the UN Security Council over the past few years.

During its tenure in the Security Council in 2021-22, India submitted UNSC 1267 to list the names of five Pakistan-based terrorists Abdul Rauf Asghar of JeM, Abdul Rehman Makki of LeT, Sajid Mir, Shahid Mehmood and Talha Saeed. The sanctions committee accepted the listing of Makki, a close aide of Lashkar-e-Taiba founder Hafiz Saeed, in January 2023.