New Delhi: The United States along with the United Kingdom and France have for now thwarted a joint bid by Pakistan and China to proscribe the Balochistan Liberation Army and the Majeed Brigade under the UN 1267 terror sanctions regime, putting a technical hold on the proposal citing insufficient evidence to link the outfits to Al Qaeda and ISIL.
The US decision, which comes amid gradual lowering of political heat and renewed efforts at securing an Indo-US trade deal, bears an important political message because it's a nuanced shift from a call taken by Washington last month to designate the BLA and Majeed Brigade as foreign terrorist organization in its own national list.
The move, at that point, was seen as a balancing effort following the US decision to designate The Resistance Front, responsible for the Pahalgam attack, as a terror outfit linked with the Lashkar-e-Toiba.
Buoyed by this, Pakistan moved quickly with China to jointly sponsor the designation of BLA and Majeed Brigade in the UN under the 1267 regime. Politically, this would have strengthened Pakistan's repeated accusations that the BLA has India's backing.
But in a clear setback to both Pakistan and China, the US took the 'technical hold' route, which China has repeatedly taken to block and delay joint Indo-US proposals to sanction individuals linked with Pakistan-based terror entities LeT and JeM. Even now, three LeT terrorists -- Sajid Mir, Shahid Mehmood and Talha Saeed -- have still not been designated under the 1267 regime because of China's hold. Abdul Rauf Asghar, who was reportedly killed in India's strikes on Bahawalpur during Operation Sindoor, was also a case both India and US had moved in 2023 but blocked by China through a technical hold.
In this case, ET has reliably gathered, the US took the line that the UN 1267 regime is specifically meant for entities linked to the Al Qaeda and ISIL, which does not legally qualify the BLA and Majeed Brigade to be part of the list. The UK and France, other two permanent members, supported the US while Russia is yet to take a call.
As per UN procedures, the subject is now on hold for at least six months before it can be taken up again but Pakistan still chose to make its move public on Wednesday at a UNAMA (UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan) meet, where its representative disclosed the joint bid with China as he sought to link BLA with the Tehreek-e-Taliban, already listed in the 1267 regime.
"Pakistan and China have jointly submitted to the 1267 Sanctions Committee a request to designate BLA and Majid Brigade. We hope the Council will act swiftly on this listing to curb their terrorist activities. The TTP, with nearly 6,000 fighters, remains the largest UN-designated terrorist group on Afghan soil. Pakistan has successfully thwarted multiple infiltration attempts of TTP and BLA terrorists from across Afghanistan, confiscating significant caches of sophisticated military-grade modern equipment left behind by international forces in Afghanistan," he said.
The US decision, which comes amid gradual lowering of political heat and renewed efforts at securing an Indo-US trade deal, bears an important political message because it's a nuanced shift from a call taken by Washington last month to designate the BLA and Majeed Brigade as foreign terrorist organization in its own national list.
The move, at that point, was seen as a balancing effort following the US decision to designate The Resistance Front, responsible for the Pahalgam attack, as a terror outfit linked with the Lashkar-e-Toiba.
Buoyed by this, Pakistan moved quickly with China to jointly sponsor the designation of BLA and Majeed Brigade in the UN under the 1267 regime. Politically, this would have strengthened Pakistan's repeated accusations that the BLA has India's backing.
But in a clear setback to both Pakistan and China, the US took the 'technical hold' route, which China has repeatedly taken to block and delay joint Indo-US proposals to sanction individuals linked with Pakistan-based terror entities LeT and JeM. Even now, three LeT terrorists -- Sajid Mir, Shahid Mehmood and Talha Saeed -- have still not been designated under the 1267 regime because of China's hold. Abdul Rauf Asghar, who was reportedly killed in India's strikes on Bahawalpur during Operation Sindoor, was also a case both India and US had moved in 2023 but blocked by China through a technical hold.
In this case, ET has reliably gathered, the US took the line that the UN 1267 regime is specifically meant for entities linked to the Al Qaeda and ISIL, which does not legally qualify the BLA and Majeed Brigade to be part of the list. The UK and France, other two permanent members, supported the US while Russia is yet to take a call.
As per UN procedures, the subject is now on hold for at least six months before it can be taken up again but Pakistan still chose to make its move public on Wednesday at a UNAMA (UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan) meet, where its representative disclosed the joint bid with China as he sought to link BLA with the Tehreek-e-Taliban, already listed in the 1267 regime.
"Pakistan and China have jointly submitted to the 1267 Sanctions Committee a request to designate BLA and Majid Brigade. We hope the Council will act swiftly on this listing to curb their terrorist activities. The TTP, with nearly 6,000 fighters, remains the largest UN-designated terrorist group on Afghan soil. Pakistan has successfully thwarted multiple infiltration attempts of TTP and BLA terrorists from across Afghanistan, confiscating significant caches of sophisticated military-grade modern equipment left behind by international forces in Afghanistan," he said.
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