ISLAMABAD: Pakistan will not give United Nations Security Council (UNSC) any direct access to 2008 Mumbai attack mastermind Hafiz Saeed or his entities, reported leading a Pakistani daily.


COMMERCIAL BREAK
SCROLL TO CONTINUE READING

The report comes ahead of UNSC sanctions monitoring team's two-day scheduled visit to Pakistan for an assessment of Islamabad's compliance with the world body's sanctions regime. The visit of the monitoring team will begin on January 26.


“They will not seek access to the JuD or Hafiz Saeed and if they do that, we will not allow it. We have been in talks and this visit was scheduled,” Senior officials at the foreign ministry told Pakistani daily The Nation.


The UNSC sanctions list includes the names of several banned terrorist outfits including Jamaat-ud-Dawa (JuD), Al-Qaeda, Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan and other organisations and individuals.


UNSC's visit comes amid increased global pressure on Pakistan from the United States to act on home-grown terror organisations.


Despite the global outcry, Pakistan PM Shahid Khaqan Abbasi last week publicly supported Saeed. Referring to him as “Hafiz Saeed sahab (Sir)”, Abbasi said that there is no case in the country against the JuD chief. His statements were severely critised by the international community.


Saeed was released from house arrest by a Pakistan court in 2017. A globally designated international terrorist with a bounty of $10 million, his release was met with global outcry. Donald Trump-led US administration froze a $255-million military aid to Pakistan, accusing the country of sheltering terrorists and militant outfits.


The co-founder of Lashkar-e-Toiba, Saeed had also toured British mosques in 1995 to incite Muslims to become jihadis, a recent investigation by BBC claimed.