India asks UN Security Council for ‘focussed attention’ on Jaish-e-Mohammed and D-Company
Indian envoy Syed Akbaruddin made the request on Tuesday during a discussion on the link between organised crime and international terrorism.
India on Tuesday told the United Nations Security Council that “focused attention” should be directed towards addressing threats posed by terror groups such as Pakistan-based militant groups Jaish-e-Mohammed and Lashkar-e-Taiba, and organised crime syndicate D-Company led by mobster Dawood Ibrahim, PTI reported.
India’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations Syed Akbaruddin said Ibrahim’s illegal activities from a “safe haven”, which refuses to admit his existence, poses an actual threat. He was referring to Pakistan. Akbaruddin made the comments during a discussion on the link between organised crime and international terrorism.
“In our own region, we have seen the mutation of Dawood Ibrahim’s criminal syndicate into a terrorist network known as the D-Company,” PTI quoted Akbaruddin as saying. “The D-Company’s illegitimate economic activities may be little known outside our region, but for us such activities as gold smuggling, counterfeit currency, as well as arms and drug trafficking from a safe haven that declines to acknowledge even his existence, are a real and present danger.”
The ambassador called for collective action against the groups like the one taken against the Islamic State, which he claimed had yielded results. “A similar degree of interest in addressing the threats posed by proscribed individuals, such as Dawood Ibrahim and his D-Company, as well as proscribed entities, including the Jaish-e-Mohammad, and the Lashkar-e-Taiba, listed as affiliates of al-Qaeda, under the 1267 sanctions regime, will serve all of us well,” he added.
Last week, Pakistan’s Foreign Office had said Ibrahim was not in the country, a day after a United Kingdom court was told that the mobster was in exile in the country, according to PTI.
Akbaruddin also called for the Security Council’s collaboration with the Financial Action Task Force, saying that Paris-based international body had made significant achievements in curbing terror financing, Hindustan Times reported. Last month, the outgoing president of the task force had cautioned Pakistan that it could be put on the watchdog’s blacklist as the country “was lacking in almost every aspect” in terms of an action plan to curb terror financing.