Pakistan has expressed disappointment over the failure of United Nations Security Council’s sanctions committee in listing of Umer Khalid Khurasani, leader of banned outfit Jamaat-ul-Ahrar (JuA).
“We are deeply disappointed…Wali has the blood of hundreds of innocent Pakistanis on his hands,” Foreign Office Spokesperson Dr Mohammad Faisal said during the weekly briefing on Thursday. “If the organisation, JuA, has been listed by the sanctions committee it’s leader should also have been listed.”
Dr Faisal added that this action demonstrated the double standards prevailing in the international fight against terrorism and also showed complete disregard of the sacrifices rendered by Pakistan in this fight.
The sanctions committee did not approve Pakistan’s request to list Umer Khalid Khurasani alias Abdul Wali, since it could not reach a consensus due to disagreement by a member, the spokesperson said.
“[But] the committee has not yet formally conveyed this development to us.”
JuA was listed by the sanctions committee in 2017. The banned organisation is based in Nangarhar province of Afghanistan and has been involved in a series of terrorist attacks in Pakistan. Since 2014, when JuA first surfaced, it proved itself to be a lethal terrorist group, perpetrating some of the most brutal attacks in Pakistan.
From August 2014 till date, the group has been involved in 116 terrorist attacks on Pakistan.
In Consolidated United Nations Security Council Sanctions List JuA has been identified as a splinter group of the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan "associated with Islamic State in Iraq and the Levenant" aka Daesh.
The UNSC list mentions that JuA was banned in Pakistan on the 21 November 2016.
