China on Wednesday put hold on a proposal put forth by India and the United States at the United Nations to list Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba terrorist Shahid Mahmood as a global terrorist.
This is the fourth time in the past months the Beijing has held bids to designate terrorists based in Pakistan under the UNSC sanctions regime.
Mahmood has been identified as a long-time senior member of Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) terrorist group. He has been a member of the group since 2007. The US government’s Treasury Department under the Obama administration identified Mahmood as a LeT publications wing member in 2013.
The Treasury Department’s press release pointed out in 2016 that Mahmood claimed that LeT’s primary concern should be attacking India and America
He is a close associate of Sajid Mir, the terror mastermind behind the 26/11 Mumbai attacks and whose designation was also blocked by China at the UNSC in September.
Mahmood worked for the so-called humanitarian wing of LeT, the Falah-i-Insaniat Foundation (FIF), which raises funds for terrorism under the garb of raising funds for humanitarian causes. He was it leader in Karachi until 2014.
Mahmood Involved in Radicalizing Rohingyas?
The press release from 2016 also reveals another minor detail that Mahmood travelled to Bangladesh to ‘distribute funds to a Burmese migrant camp’ for the purpose of facilitating LeT recruitment.
Though the press release does not indicate directly if these were members of refugee Rohingya community who were recruited by the LeT to carry out terrorist attacks. Governments in India and Bangladesh have earlier highlighted on several forums the risk of radicalization among Rohingyas and how a section of these immigrants fleeing persecution in Myanmar could be on a path to join terrorist groups based in Pakistan and Afghanistan.
Mahmood is also related to Muhammad Sarwar and both of the in the 2010s travelled to Gaza, Myanmar, Bangladesh, Syria and Turkey to conduct businesses for the LeT and the FIF. It is unclear if they were in those places to recruit and radicalize more young people to boost their ranks.
Sarwar and Mahmood were both designated as global terrorists by the US Treasury during the Obama administration.
Mahmood, Sajid Mir, Makki and Sarwar have worked together in several projects. A PTI report from 2016 says Sarwar was the LeT emir of Lahore and used the formal financial system in Pakistan to raise and move funds on behalf of LeT.
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