Pak action against banned outfits ‘cosmetic’, says India

NEW DELHI: India accused on Thursday that Pakistan’s announcement of a crackdown on Jammat ud Dawa Hafiz Saeed lacked sincerity and meant to mislead foreign governments.

Pakistan said on Wednesday it had launched 23 cases against Saeed and 12 aides for using five trusts to collect funds and donations for Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT). “Let us not get fooled by thescosmetic steps,” Raveesh Kumar, spokesman for India’s foreign ministry, told a regular press briefing.

“Pakistan’s sincerity to take action against terrorists and terror groups will be judged on the basis of their ability to demonstrate verifiable, credible and irreversible action against terror and terrorist groups operating on their soil.”

He said Pakistan’s declarations regarding its crackdown were meant to “hoodwink the international community”. Pakistan says it is itself a victim of terrorism and is doing all it can to deal with the problem. The country has lost several thousand lives of its people, including soldiers in war against terrorism. Besides it has also borne loss of billions of dollars and its economy was suffering due to it.

Kumar, the Indian foreign ministry spokesman, also accused Pakistan of “double standards” for not acting against Dawood Ibrahim, a crime boss wanted in India for carrying out a series of bomb blasts in Mumbai in 1993 that killed 257 people.

India says Ibrahim is hiding in Pakistan, an assertion Pakistan denies. “It’s very interesting that you claim you have taken action but when it comes to taking action against the people who we have demanded either you ignore, you go into a denial mode, you in fact even deny that they exist and they are present in your country,” Kumar said.

It may be mentioned that the Pakistan government few months back had issued an order to streamline the process for implementation of sanctions against individuals and entities designated by the United Nations Security Council

The United Nations Security Council (Freezing and Seizure) Order, 2019, had been issued in accordance with the provisions of Pakistan’s United Nations Security Council (UNSC) Act, 1948.

Foreign Office Spokesperson Dr Mohammad Faisal on March 4 had said the government has taken over the control of all proscribed outfits operating in the country. "[From now onwards], all kinds of assets and properties of all [banned] organisations will be in the government's control," the spokesperson had told a private TV channel.

He added that the government will now also seize the charity wings and ambulances of such banned outfits. "The objective of the [order] is to streamline the procedure for implementation of Security Council Sanctions against designated individuals and entities," the FO spokesperson said in a statement.

The handout explained that the UN Charter authorises the UNSC to decide measures, "not involving the use of armed force", that governments should implement to give effect to the council's decisions for the maintenance of international peace and security.

In Pakistan, such decisions of the UNSC are implemented through the UNSC Act, 1948. "Over the years the sanctions regime of the United Nations Security Council [has] evolved, the FO noted, adding that a key measure of the UNSC sanctions regime against suspected terrorist individuals or entities is the "assets freeze" action under which states are required to freeze or seize the assets of designated entities and individuals "as soon as they are designated by the relevant UNSC Sanctions Committee", the FO said.

It said the government has formulated the UNSC (Freezing and Seizure) Order, 2019 in line with the standards of the UNSC and Paris-based Financial Action Task Force (FATF). The then Information Minister Fawad Chaudhry, too, had said the government had taken a firm decision that there would be stern action against all militant groups. This, he said, was in accordance with the political consensus contained in the NAP, according to a report.

Earlier, Germany had also acknowledged the steps taken by Pakistan to clamp down on groups involved in militancy. German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas, while speaking to the media after meeting Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi in Islamabad, had said there were positive signs that Pakistan was acting against militant groups.

Properties of several banned groups have been seized recently and many people linked with these outfits were nabbed as the government contended that actions weare meant to meet its commitments with the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) and to get the country out of the illicit financing watchdog`s grey list.