The Editorial Analysis- Designation Failure

Table of Contents

Designation Failure- Relevance for UPSC Exam

GS Paper 2: International Relations- Bilateral, regional and global groupings and agreements involving India and/or affecting India’s interests.

Recently, China again decided to block the UN Security Council designation of Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) deputy chief Abdul Rahman Makki as a terrorist.
Beijing had repeatedly blocked the UNSC designation as terrorist of the Jaish-e-Mohammad chief Masood Azhar until 2019, and other terror designations prior to that.
New Delhi has termed China’s move to place a hold on the process (this could delay it for as much as six months) as “regrettable” and “extremely unfortunate”.

he is part of the command and control of the UNSC-designated terror group LeT, later renamed the Jamaat ud Dawa (JuD).
- Jamaat ud Dawa (JuD) is also a UN-designated terror group.
He was not just a member of the governing body or “Shura”; he served as the head of its “foreign relations” department, and raised funding.
He is also a member of LeT chief Hafiz Saeed’s family (brother in law).
- The LeT/JuD has been prosecuted in India, the United States and even Pakistan for the 26/11 Mumbai attacks.
Makki was himself tried and sentenced by a Pakistani special court to nine years imprisonment on terror financing charges — a ruling overturned a year later.

India wants him for his involvement in attacks over the past two decades, including the Red Fort attack in Delhi in 2000, and, more recently, in attacks on security forces in Jammu and Kashmir.
He is on India’s UAPA list of designated terrorists and also the U.S.’s Specially Designated Global Terrorists with a $2 million reward for information that would convict him.
Given what India and the U.S. forwarded the proposal to put him on the UNSC’s 1267 list of terrorists linked to the al Qaeda and ISIL.

While China’s actions may be motivated by growing acrimony with the U.S. and India, it is necessary to analyse the situation beyond bilateral tensions.
While China defends its actions on Makki and previous designations that it blocked as “technical objections” based on “procedural” loopholes, it is clearly part of a pattern of protecting Pakistan internationally.

Beyond criticism and continued pursuance of the listing, it is necessary for the Government to continue to gather evidence and systematically build its case on cross-border terrorism on the international stage that cannot be derailed by political or geopolitical considerations.