LAHORE: The United Nations Security Council’s decision to ban the Jamaatul Daawa (JuD) as a global terrorist organization could only become possible after China, which had thrice blocked similar attempts to proscribe the outfit in the past on the request of the Pakistan government, finally decided to cast its crucial vote in favour of the UN resolution, apparently in the aftermath of the pressure created by the Mumbai terror attacks.
‘Al-Qaeda and Taliban Sanctions Committee’ of UN Security Council approved on December 10, 2008 the addition of the four entries to its consolidated list of individuals and entities subject to the assets freeze and travel ban, including the JuD and its ameer Hafiz Mohammad Saeed. According to well placed foreign office sources, three resolutions seeking a ban on the JuD, tabled before the UN Security Council since 2003, had been simply put on technical hold by Beijing, while using its veto right being one of the five permanent UNSC members. Each time the ‘Al-Qaeda, Taliban Sanctions Committee’ of the Security Council tabled a resolution to include the Jamaatul Daawa in the list of terrorist groups, China blocked the move, while seeking credible evidences from the United Nations, indicating JuD’s terror links.
Technical hold requires information demanded by any permanent member of the UNSC before processing a resolution to declare someone a terrorist organisation. The Chinese authorities reportedly used to intervene in the past on the request of the Musharraf regime. However, it had become hard for Beijing this time to vote against the move in the aftermath of the Mumbai terror attacks and the evidence furnished by the Indian authorities. As a matter of fact, ‘Al-Qaeda and Taliban Sanctions Committee” has had the mandate to impose economic sanctions on the individuals and entities associated with al-Qaeda, its chief Osama bin Laden or with Taliban wherever located.
The Committee comprising of 15 members also entertains requests made by any member state on whose territory any terrorist organisation exists. The Committee had previously declared the Lashkar-e-Toiba a terrorist outfit on May 2, 2005, while acting under a US request. The UN move was followed by the US State Department’s decision to brand Jamaatul Daawa a terrorist organization, saying it was a front for the Lashkar-e-Toiba.
Much before that, in December 2001, the US State Department had designated the Lashkar-e-Toiba a foreign terrorist organization, following the attack on the Indian Parliament on December 13, 2001, prompting the Musharraf regime to ban the group and freeze its assets on January 13, 2002. However, a few weeks before that, Hafiz Saeed announced his stepping down as the LeT chief besides launching of the Jamaatul Daawa.
Addressing a press conference in Lahore on December 24, 2001, Hafiz Saeed announced his resignation and the appointment of Maulana Abdul Wahid Kashmiri as the new LeT chief. Hafiz Sahib further announced that the Lashkar has wrapped up its organizations set up and moved its base from Pakistan to Srinagar in Jammu & Kashmir. Since then, the JuD has denied having any links with the LeT, making Hafiz Saeed to go to the extent of denying that he had ever been the Lashkar ameer.
The Pakistan government had been resisting the US pressure in the past to ban the JuD as a terrorist organization on the ground that it was a charity-cum-humanitarian relief organization, having nothing to do with the Lashkar-e-Toiba. As the US Treasury Department accused the Jamaatul Daawa in its Anti-Terrorist Financing Guidelines for the US-Based Charities on September 29, 2006 of supporting and financing terrorists under the guise of relief work for the October 2005 quake victims, the Musharraf regime decided to place the JuD on the watch list of the Pakistani interior ministry on August 20, 2006, instead of declaring it a terrorist group.
A Pakistan government spokesperson subsequently stated on May 3, 2006: “The government has no intention of designating the Jamaatul Daawa and its affiliate organisations as terrorist entities as done by the US”. However, Pakistan would be legally bound to take action if they were placed on the consolidated list of United Nations Security Council Sanctions Committee. But in the aftermath of the UNSC decision to brand the JuD a terrorist group, well placed government circles in Islamabad do not rule out the possibility of Islamabad finally clamping a ban on the group.
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