Abdul Rehman Makki, a terrorist living in Pakistan and the brother-in-law of Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) chief Hafiz Saeed, was added to the UN Security Council’s (UNSC) ISIL (Da’esh) and Al-Qaida Sanctions Committee’s list of global terrorists on Monday.
The listing comes after China blocked India’s attempt to designate the leader of the Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) as a global terrorist in 2020. India criticised China in June 2022 after it refused to allow the terrorist Makki to be listed under the UNSC 1267 Committee’s Sanctions Committee.
“The Security Council Committee approved the addition of the entry specified below to its ISIL (Da’esh) and Al-Qaida Sanctions List of individuals and entities subject to the assets freeze, travel ban, and arms embargo set out in paragraph 1 of Security Council resolution 2610 (2021) on January 16, 2023, in accordance with resolutions 1267 (1999), 1989 (2011), and 2253 (2015) concerning ISIL (Da’esh), Al-Qaida, and associated individuals, groups
Who is Abdul Rehman Makki?
- Makki has already been declared a terrorist by India and the United States under domestic law.
- Makki has been active in fund-raising, recruiting, radicalizing, and planning terrorist acts in India, particularly in Jammu and Kashmir.
- Hafiz Saeed, the mastermind of the 26/11 Mumbai terrorist attacks, has a brother-in-law named Makki. He has held a number of executive positions with the LeT, a group that the US has labelled as a foreign terrorist organization (FTO).
- He has also contributed to the fundraising efforts for the LeT.
- According to the US State Department, a Pakistani anti-terrorism court found Makki guilty on one count of financing terrorism in 2020 and gave him a prison term.
- The sanctions committee stated that while Makki held his leadership positions within the LeT and JUD, the LeT was either directly or indirectly involved in a number of notable attacks, including the Red Fort Attack, in which six LeT terrorists stormed Red Fort on December 22, 2000, and opened fire indiscriminately on the security forces guarding the Fort.
- As a specially designated global terrorist, Makki was identified by the US Department of the Treasury in November 2010. This designation has a number of effects, including the blocking of Makki’s US-jurisdictional assets and interests in those assets as well as a general ban on US citizens conducting any business with Makki.
- For information on Makki, “also known as Abdulrahman Maki,” the US Department of State’s Rewards for Justice programme is offering a reward of up to USD 2 million.
- China initially put obstacles in the way of known terrorists being listed, especially those from Pakistan. It had repeatedly rejected requests to name Maulana Masood Azhar, the leader of the Pakistan-based terrorist organization Jaish-e-Mohammed that is prohibited by the UN (JeM).
