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The Chinese government holds off on ‘blacklisting’ Pakistani terrorist Hafiz Talha Saeed

A day after opposing the UN resolution that would have blacklisted Hafiz Talah Saeed, the son of Lashkar-e-Taiba leader Hafiz Saeed, as a global terrorist, China has put a technical hold on the resolution that would have done the same for terrorist from the Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) Shahid Mahmood.

For the second time in less than two days, Beijing has blocked India and the US from designating a terrorist headquartered in Pakistan as a global terrorist. China recently blocked India and the US from designating Mahmood (42) as a foreign terrorist organisation under the 1267 Al Qaeda Sanctions Committee of the UN Security Council.

China has halted listing requests for terrorists with ties to Pakistan for the 1267 Al Qaeda Sanctions Committee regime five times in the last four months. Hafiz Talha Saeed (46), a key member of the lethal terrorist group LeT, is the son of Hafiz Saeed, the mastermind of the 26/11 Mumbai terrorist attacks.

The Union Home Ministry labelled him a terrorist in a notification released in April of this year, claiming that Hafiz Talha Saeed had been actively involved in recruiting, raising money, and planning and carrying out attacks against India and Indian interests in Afghanistan by the Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT). Additionally, the Home Ministry’s statement said that he had been actively travelling to different LeT centres around Pakistan and preaching while promoting jihad against India, Israel, the USA, and Indian interests in other western nations.

An important figure in the LeT, Hafiz Talha Saeed is in charge of the terrorist group’s religious division. Mahmood and another LeT senior, Muhammad Sarwar, were identified by the US Department of Treasury in December 2016 as part of an effort ‘to disrupt Lashkar-e Tayyiba’s (LeT) financing and support networks’, over Beijing’s opposition.

Mahmood ‘has been a longstanding top LeT member located in Karachi, Pakistan, and has been linked with the organisation since at least 2007,’ according to documents on the US Department of the Treasury website. Mahmood was the vice chairman of Falah-i-Insaniat Foundation (FIF), an organisation, from June 2015 until at least June 2016.

Mahmood presided over FIF in Karachi in 2014. According to the website, Mahmood was recognised as a member of the LeT publishing wing in August 2013. Mahmood had previously been a member of Sajjid Mir’s LeT international operations team. In addition, Mahmood received orders in August 2013 to establish clandestine connections with Islamic groups in Bangladesh and Burma, and as of late 2011, Mahmood asserted that LeT’s main focus should be targeting India and America, according to the US Department of Treasury.

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