Last Update: January 20, 2023, 00:19 AM IST
On Thursday, Makki released a video statement saying the UN acted against him without listening to his testimony. (Representational photo/AFP)
The United Nations on Tuesday designated Abdul Rehman Makki (68), an anti-India terrorist lodged in Pakistan, as a terrorist, the world body’s second such designation in connection with the Mumbai attacks.
A Pakistani man designated as a global terrorist by the United Nations in connection with the Mumbai attacks released a video on Thursday, denying any links to al-Qaeda or the Islamic State group. However, he made no mention of the 2008 terror attacks India In which 166 people were killed.
The United Nations on Tuesday designated Abdul Rehman Makki (68), an anti-India terrorist lodged in Pakistan, as a terrorist, the world body’s second such designation in connection with the Mumbai attacks.
He is a senior figure in the banned Lashkar-e-Taiba group, which is mainly active in the disputed Himalayan region of Kashmir. He was arrested in 2019 and convicted a year later on terror financing charges, a conviction not related to the 2008 terrorist attacks.
On Thursday, Makki released a video statement saying the UN acted against him without listening to his testimony.
He insisted that he had never met al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, who was killed in a 2011 US Navy SEAL raid on his hiding place in the northwestern Pakistani city of Abbottabad, or bin Laden’s successor, Ayman al-Zawahiri, who was killed in a US drone. The attack last July in Kabul, the capital of Afghanistan.
Makki also said that the UN Security Council violated his rights by blacklisting him without hearing his side. He also claimed that he had never participated in “any terrorist activity” in his life.
The UN Security Council committee that oversees sanctions against al-Qaeda and Islamic State extremists and their affiliates blacklisted Makki after approval by the council’s 15 members. Under the UN measure, his assets could be frozen and he would also face a travel ban.
Following Makki’s blacklisting, Pakistan’s foreign ministry said that Pakistan itself is a victim of terrorism and supports anti-terrorist efforts internationally, including at the United Nations.
However, although convicted, Makki is not in jail but is under house arrest at an undisclosed location in Pakistan.
Makki is a close relative of terrorist leader Hafiz Saeed, accused of carrying out the Mumbai attacks. Saeed, 72, is serving a 31-year prison sentence and was designated a terrorist by the United States and the United Nations Security Council following the 2008 Mumbai attacks.
Saeed, like Makki, was never charged in Pakistan in connection with the Mumbai attacks, further straining relations between bitter regional rivals Pakistan and India.
In the video, Makki talks at length about Kashmir, which is divided between Pakistan and India but which both claim as its entirety. Since gaining independence from Britain in 1947, Pakistan and India have fought two of their three wars over Kashmir.
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(This story has not been edited by News18 staff and is published from a syndicated news agency feed)