Failure to impose sanctions on terror leaders erodes UN authority: India

Failure to impose sanctions on leaders of terrorist organisations is eroding the UN's authority, India has warned.

If the Security Council and its agencies did not come up with a "cohesive response to global terrorism they run the risk of becoming marginalised from the most fundamental security priorities of member states whose fabric is being torn asunder by terrorists," India's Permanent Representative Syed Akbaruddin said on Thursday during a General Assembly debate on Afghanistan.

He reiterated a demand India made in June for designating Taliban chief Mawlawi Haibatullah Akhundzada as a terrorist and making him face the penalties of UN sanctions.

"The international community is impatient for action," Akbaruddin said.

"Earlier this week, President Ashraf Ghani of Afghanistan himself asked a delegation of the UNSC (Security Council) Sanctions Committee to include this person, and such others, in the list of terrorists," he said.

The working of the Sanctions committee has been a sore point for India. China has used its veto to provide cover for Jaish-e-Mohammad's Pakistan-based head, Masood Azhar, from sanctions.

India says he is the mastermind of the January terrorist attack on the Air Force base in Pathankot.

Afghanistan's Permanent Representative Mahmoud Saikal also raised the problem of the Taliban and other terrorist organisations based in Pakistan.

Without directly naming it, he accused Pakistan of waging a "thinly disguised declared war" against his country by using the Taliban and other terrorist orgnisations, including the Haqqani network and the Islamic State.

He warned Islamabad, "Those who seek solace from the intention of keeping Afghanistan bleeding must remember that such actions would bleed them, too, and warrant international isolation."

(Arul Louis can be reached at arul.l@ians.in)

--IANS

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