Pakistan regrets objection to its proposal to declare Indian national terrorist

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan on Wednesday expressed disappointment that its proposal to designate Indian national Venumadhav Dongara as terrorist had been objected to.

“We are disappointed that Pakistan’s proposal to designate Venumadhav Dongara as terrorist has been objected to. Pakistan hopes that the listing requests of other three Indian nationals will be given due consideration by the UNSC 1267 Sanctions Committee in an objective and transparent manner,” said the Foreign Office.

Venumadhav Dongara is an engineer with an Indian construction company active in Afghanistan. He is one of the four Indian nationals Pakistan has linked with terror attacks inside Pakistan from Afghanistan. Pakistan had proposed the designation of four Indian nationals in 2019 under the United Nations 1267 Sanctions List, namely Venumadhav Dongara, Ajoy Mistry, Gobinda Patnaik, and Angara Appaji.

Pakistan still hopes that the listing requests of other three Indian nationals will be given due consideration by the UNSC 1267 Sanctions Committee in an objective and transparent manner. “These individuals were financing, sponsoring and organizing terrorism inside Pakistan by providing financial, technical and material support to terrorist groups including TTP, Jamaat-ul-Ahrar and others”, says the Foreign Office.

Earlier, media reports had pointed out that the United States had formally informed all members of the UNSC on Friday that it was officially blocking and thus terminating a proposal to proscribe an Indian national by the UNSC 1267 sanctions committee.

India has recently been elected as a non-permanent member of the UNSC. “The US action in UNSC has again underscored the significance of Indo-US cooperation on the issue of cross-border terrorism in all its forms. It is important to recall that even the ban on JeM Massood Azhar last year by the UN was made possible after the US gave an ultimatum to China that if the latter didn't drop its opposition by a certain date (April 23), the same proposal would be directly introduced in UNSC, bypassing the 1267 committee”, says a media report.

Last year, the US while supporting India had put Pakistan’s proposal on a technical hold, when more evidences against Dongara were expected. “With fresh evidence not forthcoming, but Pakistan still insisting on his listing by the Sanctions Committee, the US last week blocked the proposal, bringing it to an end formally”, added the media reports. "We never really expected Pakistan to come up with any serious evidence. In Masood Azhar's case, even China had to unblock the proposed ban because he hadn't just masterminded terror attacks, but was also heading an organisation (JeM) already proscribed by the UN," an Indian official was quoted as saying.

Pakistan meanwhile insists that taking advantage of the prolonged conflict in its neighbourhood, India has fomented terrorism inside its territory by providing training, financial and material support to terrorist groups to kill innocent people in Pakistan. “These Indian nationals are now residing in India with impunity which vindicates Pakistan’s position that India is a state-sponsor of terrorism”, added the Foreign Office.

Meanwhile, Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi has sent out a warning to India that any attack on Pakistan would be met with full force. In a statement, he said India was plotting attacks on Pakistan to divert attention from the humiliation it had recently faced at the hands of China in which 20 of its soldiers were killed. Qureshi said India was facing embarrassment and now planning false flag operations against Pakistan. "There is no doubt about what India is trying to do. Whatever India does, it will receive a response in kind,” he warned.