India has been successful in bringing Pakistan under monitoring of Asia Pacific Group to enforce UN sanctions against underworld don Dawood Ibrahim, terror mastermind Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi and LeT founder Hafiz Saeed despite strong opposition from China.
Officials said China has stood by Pakistan on terror asking India to back off at the recently-concluded meeting of Financial Action Task Force (FATF), a global body, held in Brisbane, Australia, when New Delhi had strongly raised non-compliance by Islamabad on freezing assets of Lashkar-e-Taiba and its affiliates and Dawood.
However,India has been successful in convincing allies like the US to derail China’s attempt and roped in the Asia Pacific Group on Money Laundering (APG), an autonomous and collaborative international organisation consisting of 41 members and a number of international and regional observers.
APG will now monitor and ensure Pakistan’s compliance of UN sanctions against terrorists as Islamabad is a member of the international body, officials said.
China had objected to India raising the issue at FATF on the grounds that Pakistan is not a member of the grouping.
India has been insisting that Pakistan must seize assets of fugitive Dawood Ibrahim and most wanted terrorists Hafiz Saeed and Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi as all three are in UNSC’s al Qaeda sanctions list which makes it incumbent upon Islamabad to freeze their holdings.
The UN Security Council’s al Qaeda and Taliban Sanctions Committee has listed Dawood, Saeed and Mumbai terror attack key conspirator Lakhvi and impose sanctions on them.
As a UN member state, it is the responsibility of Pakistan to freeze their assets.
The committee, established pursuant to UN Security Council resolution 1267 (1999), is a Security Council subsidiary organ that oversees the implementation by member- states of the three sanctions measures — assets freeze, travel ban, and arms embargo — imposed against targeted individuals and entities associated with al Qaeda, as designated by the Committee in its sanctions list.
India has been maintaining that 1993 Mumbai serial blasts key accused Dawood is in Pakistan, though Islamabad denies it.
Hafiz Saeed roams freely in Pakistan while Lakhvi, set free from a Rawalpindi jail last month, is currently living in the country.
Dawood was put in UNSC sanction list in 2003, Saeed in 2008 and Lakhvi in 2008.
–PTI