The United Nations has rejected the appeal of Pakistan based terrorist Hafiz Saeed and chief of UN-designated terrorist organisation Jamat-ud-Dawa, requesting the removal of his name from the list of banned terrorists. Hafiz Saeed, who was the mastermind of 26/11 terrorist attack in Mumbai, was banned by the UN in December 2008 after the 26/11 attack which claimed the lives of around 166 people. Saeed’s request was opposed by India, the US, the UK and France.
The decision of the UN to reject Saeed’s appeal filed by him through his lawyer Haider Rasul Mirza came after detailed evidence including highly confidential information about his activities was provided by India.
UN’s 1267 Sanctions Committee had recently received a fresh request to ban Masood Azhar, chief of UN-designated terrorist organisation Jaish-e-Mohammad which had claimed the responsibility of Pulwama terrorist attack. The bid was made by the US, the UK and France. The decision of the UN to reject Saeed’s appeal filed by him through his lawyer Haider Rasul Mirza came after detailed evidence including highly confidential information about his activities was provided by India.
Interestingly Pakistan did not oppose the appeal of Hafiz Saeed despite tall claims of Pakistan taking action against terrorist organisations. However, this was expected from Pakistan considering that it’s Prime Minister Imran Khan who talks of “Naya Pakistan’ did not even condemn the Pulwama terrorist attack and rather threatened with dire consequences if India attacked it.
UN-appointed independent Ombudsperson Daniel Kipler Fasciati who examined all the reports recommended that the decision to ban Saeed would continue as there was sufficient information to provide a reasonable and credible basis for continuing the listing.