UNITED NATIONS: China on Wednesday put a hold on a proposal by India and the US at the United Nations to blacklist Pakistan-based militant Hafiz Talah Saeed, the son of Lashkar-e-Taiba chief Hafiz Saeed, in the second such move within two days.

Hafiz Talha Saeed, 46, is a key leader of the dreaded terrorist group LeT and the son of 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks mastermind Hafiz Saeed.

In April this year, he had been declared a terrorist by the Indian government.

It is learnt that China placed a hold on the proposal to add Hafiz Talah Saeed under the 1267 Al Qaeda Sanctions Committee of the UN Security Council.

It is the second time in less than two days that Beijing put a hold on the bid submitted by India and the US to designate a Pakistan-based terrorist as a global terrorist.

In a notification, India’s Home Ministry had said that Hafiz Talha Saeed has been actively involved in recruitment, fund collection, and planning and executing attacks by the Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) in India and Indian interests in Afghanistan.

He has also been actively visiting various LeT centres across Pakistan, and during his sermons propagating for jihad against India, Israel, the United States of America and Indian interests in other western countries, it had stated.

Hafiz Talha Saeed is a senior leader of the LeT and is the head of the cleric wing of the terrorist organisation.

China on Tuesday put a hold on a proposal by India and the US at the United Nations to list Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba leader Shahid Mahmood as a global terrorist.

Beijing placed a hold on the proposal by India and the US to designate Mahmood, 42, as a global terrorist under the 1267 Al Qaeda Sanctions Committee of the UN Security Council.

The US Department of Treasury had designated Mahmood as well as another LeT leader Muhammad Sarwar in December 2016 as part of the action ‘to disrupt LeT’s fundraising and support networks.’

According to information on the US Department of the Treasury’s website, Mahmood has been a longstanding senior LeT member based in Karachi, Pakistan, and has been affiliated with the group since at least 2007.

As early as June 2015 through at least June 2016, Mahmood served as the vice chairman of Falah-i-Insaniat Foundation (FIF), a humanitarian and fundraising arm of LeT.

In 2014, Mahmood was the leader of FIF in Karachi. In August 2013, Mahmood was identified as a LeT publications wing member, the website said.

“Mahmood was previously part of LeT’s overseas operations team led by Sajjid Mir. Additionally, in August 2013, Mahmood was instructed to forge covert links with Islamic organizations in Bangladesh and Burma, and as of late 2011, Mahmood claimed that LeT’s primary concern should be attacking India and America,” the US Department of Treasury said.

This is the fifth time in four months that China has put a hold on listing proposals to designate Pakistan-based terrorists under the 1267 Al Qaeda Sanctions Committee regime.

In June this year, China put a hold, at the last moment, on a joint proposal by India and the US to blacklist Pakistan-based terrorist Abdul Rehman Makki under the 1267 Al-Qaida Sanctions Committee of the UN Security Council.

Makki is a US-designated terrorist and brother-in-law of Hafiz Saeed.

New Delhi and Washington had put in a joint proposal to designate Makki as a global terrorist under the 1267 ISIL and Al Qaida Sanctions Committee of the UN Security Council but Beijing placed a hold on this proposal at the last minute.

Then in August, China again put a hold on a proposal by the US and India to blacklist Abdul Rauf Azhar, the senior leader of Pakistan-based terror organisation Jaish-e-Mohammed (JEM).

Azhar, born in 1974 in Pakistan, had been sanctioned by the US in December 2010.

The US Department of Treasury had in December 2010 designated Abdul Rauf Azhar for acting for or on behalf of JEM.

The US said as a senior leader of JeM, Abdul Rauf Azhar has urged Pakistanis to engage in militant activities.

He has served as JEM’s acting leader in 2007, as one of JEM’s most senior commanders in India, and as JEM’s intelligence coordinator.

In 2008 Azhar was assigned to organise suicide attacks in India.

He was also involved with JEM’s political wing and has served as a JEM official involved with training camps.

In September, Beijing put a hold on a proposal moved at the United Nations by the US and co-supported by India to designate Lashkar-e-Tayyiba terrorist Sajid Mir, wanted for his involvement in the 26/11 Mumbai terrorist attacks, as a global terrorist.

Mir is one of India’s most wanted terrorists and has a bounty of USD5 million placed on his head by the US for his role in the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks.

In June this year, he was jailed for over 15 years in a terror-financing case by an anti-terrorism court in Pakistan, which is struggling to exit the grey list of the Paris-based Financial Action Task Force (FATF).

Pakistani authorities had in the past claimed Mir had died, but Western countries remained unconvinced and demanded proof of his death.

This issue became a major sticking point in FATF’s assessment of Pakistan’s progress on the action plan late last year.

Mir is a senior member of the Pakistan-based LeT and is wanted for his involvement in the November 2008 terrorist attacks in Mumbai.

“Mir was LeT’s operations manager for the attacks, playing a leading role in their planning, preparation, and execution,” the US State Department has said.

External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar said in his address to the high-level UN General Assembly session in September had said that “The United Nations responds to terrorism by sanctioning its perpetrators”.

“Those who politicise the UNSC 1267 Sanctions regime, sometimes even to the extent of defending proclaimed terrorists, do so at their own peril.

Believe me, they advance neither their own interests nor indeed their reputation,” he had said.

Amid repeated holds on proposals to designate terrorists under the UN sanctions regime, Jaishankar had told reporters here last month that terrorism should not be used as a political tool and the idea that something is blocked without assigning a reason challenges common sense.

“We do believe that in any process, if any party is taking a decision, they need to be transparent about it. So the idea that something is blocked without assigning a reason, it sort of challenges common sense,” Jaishankar had said in New York in response to a question by PTI on the issue of repeated holds and blocks on proposals to list terrorists under the UN sanctions regime.

Earlier also, China, an all-weather friend of Islamabad, has placed holds and blocks on bids by India and its allies to list Pakistan-based terrorists.

In May 2019, India won a huge diplomatic win at the UN when the global body designated Pakistan-based JeM chief Masood Azhar as a “global terrorist”, a decade after New Delhi had first approached the world body on the issue.

A veto-wielding permanent member of the UN Security Council, China was the sole hold-out in the 15-nation body on the bid to blacklist Azhar, blocking attempts by placing a “technical hold”.

MUMBAI: The Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad has arrested four activists of the proscribed Popular Front of India (PFI) from Panvel in the neighbouring Raigad district, an official said on Thursday.

Those arrested include a local member of the banned outfit’s state expansion committee, a local unit secretary and two other workers, he said.

The ATS had specific information about a meeting of two functionaries of the PFI and a few workers in Panvel, even as the organisation has been banned by the Government of India, the official said.

Accordingly, an ATS team conducted a search in Panvel, located about 50 km from Mumbai, and apprehended the four PFI activists, he said.

After questioning, all four were placed under arrest in a case registered at the Kalachowki unit of the ATS in Mumbai under section 10 of the stringent Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, the official said.

Further probe into the case is on, he added.

The government had last month banned the PFI and several of its associates for five years, accusing them of having “links” with global terror groups like ISIS.

More than 250 people allegedly linked with the PFI were detained or arrested in raids across multiple states last month.

NEW DELHI:  While questions are being raised over the role of Rahul Gandhi after Mallikarjun Kharge becoming the Congress chief, senior Congress leader Gaurav Gogoi said that Rahul Gandhi will be the Prime Ministerial face of the party in the 2024 general elections. 

“It is evident that Rahul Gandhi is the PM face for 2024. There are many Congress workers who feel that Rahul is the best person to be the Prime Ministerial candidate. Mallikarjun Kharge will strengthen the Congress Party as the president,” he said. “We feel that no other leader can take the effort that Rahul Gandhi is putting behind the Bharat Jodo yatra. Name one political leader in India who is willing to walk 3000 kms to unite India,” he added.

While critics say that Kharge will act as a rubber stamp of the top leadership, Gogoi dismissed such allegations. “Calling Kharge a rubber stamp is ludicrous. As the leader of the opposition in Rajya Sabha, he has managed to unite not only the Congress party behind him but in the Parliament, he has managed to unite all other major opposition parties as well. Words such as rubber stamps are essentially made by those political parties that have no internal democracy, who have no electoral process to showcase. Congress has shown them that we walked the talk also,” he said.

Talking about the CWC election, Gogoi said that Kharge has promised to implement the Udaipur Chintan Shivir resolution, which includes the election to the Working committee. “Let Kharge take over and outline his vision and his roadmap for the party in the next few months.

But in his campaign, he has already said that he will implement the letter and spirit of the promises made during the Udaipur Chintan Shivir. It said that not only CWC, all major organisational posts, the representation of young people, especially women should be increased. I look forward to that,” he said.

NEW DELHI:  In a bid to transform the Indian defence sector to achieve self-reliance, and boost the export of defence items, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday released the ‘Fourth Positive Indigenisation List’ of 101 equipment and systems at DefExpo 2022 in Gandhinagar

The PM also unveiled indigenous trainer aircraft and laid the foundation stone of a new airbase at Deesha. In a statement, the Ministry of Defence said, “All the items included in the lists will be procured from indigenous sources as per provisions given in Defence Acquisition Procedure 2020.”

The MoD had earlier promulgated ‘First, Second and Third Positive Indigenisation Lists’, comprising 310 items on August 21, 2020, May 31, 2021 and April 07, 2022 respectively. The ministry has taken numerous steps to achieve ‘Aatmanirbharta’ in defence, and Positive Indigenisation Lists is one of the landmark initiatives towards achieving the vision.

The fourth list has been prepared by the MoD after several rounds of consultations with all stakeholders, including the industry. “It lays special focus on equipment and systems, which are being developed and likely to translate into firm orders in the next five to 10 years. Like the first three lists, import substitution of ammunition, which is a recurring requirement, has been given special focus,” the MoD added.

The Prime Minister also unveiled HTT-40, an indigenous trainer aircraft designed and developed by Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) at the DefExpo. The aircraft has state-of-the-art contemporary systems and has been designed with pilot-friendly features. The HTT-40 would be used for basic flight training, aerobatics, instrument flying and close formation flights whereas its secondary roles would include navigation and night flying.

Rustam-II trials to be over by ’23  
NEW DElhi: The much awaited indigenous Medium Altitude Long Endurance (MALE) Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) is expected to complete its user trials by August 2023. Another project for production of its armed version is also underway simultaneously by the Defence Research and Development Organisation. Another source said, the important “night flying trials have started but held up due to logistical issues and are expected to be completed shortly.” The User trials will be conducted soon, he added. ENS

NEW DELHI: In a move to ban firecrackers, Environment Minister Gopal Rai on Wednesday said that bursting firecrackers on Diwali in the national capital will lead to a jail term of up to six months and a fine of Rs 200.

Production, storage and sale of firecrackers in the city will be punishable with a fine of up to Rs 5,000 and three years in jail under Section 9B of the Explosives Act, said Rai.

In September, the government re-imposed a complete ban on the production, sale and use of all types of firecrackers till January 1, including on Diwali, a practice it has been following for the last two years.
The government will light 51,000 diyas at Central Park in Connaught Place on Friday.

“The purchase and bursting of firecrackers in Delhi will be punishable with a fine of Rs 200 and six months in jail under the IPC,” the minister said. Rai said 408 teams have been set up to implement the ban. 

The Delhi Police has set up 210 teams under assistant commissioners of police, while the Revenue Department has constituted 165 teams and the Delhi Pollution Control Committee 33.

The minister said 188 cases of violations have been detected and 2,917 kg firecrackers seized till October 16. The air quality in Delhi started worsening in October due to unfavourable meteorological factors such as low temperatures and wind speed, which do not allow the dispersion of pollutants.

NEW DELHI:  The 477-page counter affidavit of the Gujarat government in the Bilkis Bano case, which the Supreme Court found bulky, has revealed the flawed character of one of the 11 convicts the State released on remission citing good behaviour.

An annexure dated May 25, 2022 addressed to the Collector and District Magistrate, by Balram Meena, the Superintendent of Police, Dahod, said Mitesh Chimanlal Bhatt, one of the convicts, was charged for outraging a woman’s modesty on June 19, 2020 while he was on parole.

An FIR was registered at the Randhikpur police station invoking various IPC sections, including 354 (outraging the modesty of a woman), 504 (intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of peace) and 506 (criminal intimidation).

A chargesheet was later filed and the case is under trial. Yet, Meena had no issues with Bhatt’s premature release, arguing the chargesheet “guarantees that the accused agrees to uphold any future judgment given by Hon’ble Court (Dahod court) in this case.”

His letter also revealed that till May 25, 2022 Bhatt had enjoyed “954 parole, furlough leaves”. Importantly, he was out of prison for 281 days after the June 19, 2020 incident. The annexures further disclosed that over 1,000 days of “leave” from jail, including parole and furlough, was enjoyed by at least 10 out of the 11 convicts. Besides claiming their good behaviour, the Gujarat government in its counter said the decision to release the convicts had the Centre’s approval.