New York: The United Nations Security Council (UNSC) has listed Pakistan-based terrorist Abdul Rehman Makki as a global terrorist. It did so under its ISIL (Daesh) and Al-Qaida Sanctions Committee.
This listing comes as a shocker for China. The Chinese had blocked India’s bid to name Makki a global terrorist last year.
China had been constantly blocking India’s proposals regarding Islamic terrorists. It had blocked a similar proposal about Maulana Masood Azhar also. Masood is chief of the Pakistan-based and UN-proscribed Islamic terror group, Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM).
India and US had already designated Makki as a terrorist under their domestic laws. He is involved in raising funds, recruiting, and radicalizing Muslim youth for violence. He has been planning Islamic terror attacks in India, particularly in Jammu and Kashmir.
Makki is the brother-in-law of Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) chief Hafiz Saeed. Hafiz was the mastermind of notorious 26/11 Islamic terror attack in Mumbai. In past, he has held various leadership roles within LeT. He was born in Bahawalpur, Punjab Province of Pakistan.
Makki also served as head of LeT’s foreign relations department and a member of Shura (governing body).
Makki’s listing as a global terrorist is a shot in the arm for especially those countries who have been a victim of Islamic terrorism, and also displays the importance of international cooperation in tackling terrorism.
Countries that support and engage in terror activities should take this listing of Abdul Makki as a warning. They should realise that world will hold them accountable for their actions.
“This,” as a former Indian Permanent Representative to the UN TS Tirumurti put it, “is a big success for Indian diplomacy, especially when India was the proposer and US as co-signer.”
India had made the proposal to list Makki under the UNSC sanctions committee in June 2022. At that time, TS Tirumurti was India’s Ambassador to the UN.
India was a member of the UN Security Council for the 2021-22 term and Tirumurti was Chair of the UN Counter-Terrorism Committee last year before retiring from the Indian foreign service.
India’s former Permanent Representative to the UN Ambassador Syed Akbaruddin said in a tweet, “1 more success for @IndianDiplomacy. Abdul Rahman Makki designated by @UN Sanctions Committee…The pursuit of the rest continues.”
It was under Akbaruddin’s leadership at India’s Permanent Mission to the UN here that India won a huge diplomatic win in May 2019 when the global body had designated Masood Azhar as a global terrorist.
