By Muhammad Luqman
Pakistan has criticised the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) sanctions committee for not listing banned outfit Jamaat-ul-Ahrar (JuA) leader Umar Khalid Khurasani on the sanctions list.
“We are deeply disappointed…Wali has the blood of hundreds of innocent Pakistanis on his hands,” Foreign Office (FO) Spokesperson Dr Mohammad Faisal said during the weekly briefing in the capital Islamabad on Thursday.
“If the organisation, JuA, has been listed by the sanctions committee, it’s leader should also have been listed.” Dr. Faisal remarked.
He also highlighted that this action was one of the many examples of the international double standards regarding the fight against terrorism.
Dr. Muhammad Faisal said that the sacrifices rendered by Pakistan against terrorism were taken for granted.
“The sanctions committee did not approve Pakistan’s request to list Umar Khalid Khurasani alias Abdul Wali since it could not reach a consensus due to disagreement by a member,” said the spokesperson.
“[But] the committee has not yet formally conveyed this development to us,” he added.
In 2017, banned organisation JuA was listed by the sanctions committee. The Afghanistan based organisation has been involved in a series of terrorist attacks in Pakistan. Originally a Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) faction that split away, the group came on the map in 2014 after claiming responsibility for the Wagah border suicide attack.
Up till now, the group has been behind 116 brutal terrorist attacks on Pakistan.
The Consolidated United Nations Security Council Sanctions List, categorises the JuA as a splinter TTP group “associated with Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL)” aka Daesh.
The UNSC list also mentions JuA was banned in Pakistan on November 21, 2016.
