Islamabad, Jan 21: Amid mounting global pressure on Pakistan to act against Mumbai attack mastermind Hafiz Saeed and entities linked to him, a UN Security Council team will visit the country this week for an assessment of Islamabad’s compliance with the world body’s sanctions regime.
The two-day visit of the UN Security Council’s sanctions monitoring team will begin Thursday. “The monitoring team of the UNSC 1267 Sanctions Committee will be here January 25 and 26,” a senior Pakistani official was quoted as saying by Dawn.
The UN monitoring team’s visit is taking place amid increasing pressure on Pakistan from the US and India with respect to the inadequate implementation of the sanctions on Saeed and entities linked to him.
However, Pakistani officials, insist that the trip is a routine visit. Saeed was listed under UN Security Council Resolution 1267 in December 2008. On Friday, the US State Department said it has told clearly to Islamabad that Saeed is a “terrorist” and should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law, reacting strongly to Pakistan Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi’s remarks that there was no case against the Mumbai attack
mastermind.
State Department spokesperson Heather Nauert said: “He is listed by the UNSC 1267, the Al-Qaeda Sanctions Committee for targeted sanctions due to his affiliation with Lashkar-e- Taiba, which is a designated foreign terror organisation.”
PTI