New Delhi has regretted the fact that justice continues to “elude” the victims of 26/11 Mumbai terrorist attack after China blocked a joint proposal by the US and India to designate Sajid Mir as a “global terrorist” under the 1267 al-Qaeda* Sanctions Committee of the United Nations (UN) Security Council.
During his remarks at a ‘High-level Conference on counter-terrorism’ at the General Assembly, Prakash Gupta, Joint Secretary (UNP) division at India’s Ministry of External Affairs (MEA), blamed “petty geopolitical interests” for the failure of the UN to proscribe “established terrorists” such as Mir.
“The mastermind of the Mumbai Terror Attacks Sajid Mir – was listed as a proscribed terrorist – under the national laws of India, of the United States, and of several other countries. But when the proposal for listing Sajid Mir – did not get through the Global Listings of the UN Security Council Sanctions Regime despite several member states co-sponsoring it – we have righteous reasons to believe that something is genuinely wrong with the global counter terrorism architecture,” the diplomat said.
Mir has been charged by Indian authorities of “directing the terrorists on phone to hunt down foreigners” during the 26/11 terrorist attacks in Mumbai in November 2008.
Ten heavily-armed terrorists who had come to Mumbai through the sea route from Pakistan attacked different areas of the Indian financial capital over a period of three days, resulting in deaths of 166 people, including those from 26 other nationalities.
The attack was masterminded by proscribed terrorist group Lashkar-e-Tayyiba* (LeT), which was formerly headed by global terrorist Hafiz Saeed, who is based in Pakistan.
Mir is also a senior operative in the LeT.
According to reports, Mir was sentenced for over 15 years in a terror-financing case by an anti-terror court in June this year.
* terrorsit organizations banned in Russia, India and other states