China once again turned towards shielding Pakistan by blocking US-India’s joint move to declare Shahid Mahmood as a “global terrorist” on October 19, at the United Nations. Beijing has saved a Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) terrorist at the international level using a “technical hold” under the 1267 Al Qaeda Sanctions Committee of the United Nations Security Council (UNSC).
Pakistan providing shield by Beijing
This support of the Republic of China for Pakistan was not seen for the first time. During the past few months, China denied three requests to blacklist terrorists at a global level. In addition, Pakistan designated terrorist Mahmood is already declared as a “global terrorist” in 2016 by the United States of America.
Previously this year in June, China, the only UN member to do so, used veto shield to protect convicted Pakistan terrorist, Abdul Makki. The same has been done to shield Masood Azhar, 26/11 attack mastermind Sajid Mir, and Abdul Rauf (involved in the hijacking of IC 814, and brother of Masood Azhar) from UNSC’s terrorist designation.
Declared as “terrorist” by the United States Treasury, and by India, Makki has also been convicted by Pakistani court.
China’s hypocrisy over terrorism
This whole saving gameplay puts Beijing in a contrary state, who on one side talks of eliminating terrorism while protecting the terrorists. Clearly this shows, China’s call on ending terrorism is all for cameras. Pakistan is not less, all its trials, convictions are to fool the global community, while on the other end it provides shelter to these terrorists.
What is a technical hold
Under the procedures of the UN Security Council, if any of the member utilises technical hold, it will effectively block the proposal to designate an individual as a global or UN terrorist. Technical hold can put stay for a time period of six months.
China is a permanent member of the security council, therefore Beijing again and again uses its veto power to protect Pakistani terrorists.
Former Indian official spokesperson of the Ministry of the External Affairs, Syed Akbaruddin taking a dig at Beijing, tweeted, “China shields another terrorist. Shahid Mahmood is 4th individual terrorist favoured by a Chinese ‘hold’ at UN in 2022. Nationality: Pakistani (as were the others favoured by China)”.
