China on Tuesday blocked a proposal by the US and India at the United Nations to designate top Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) militant Sajid Mir, one of India's most sought terrorists and the mastermind of the 2008 Mumbai attacks, as a global terrorist, news agency PTI reported.
Beijing vetoed a request by the United States and India to name Mir as a global terrorist under the UN Security Council's 1267 Al Qaeda Sanctions Committee and subject him to asset freezes, travel bans, and arms embargoes.
It was revealed in September of last year that China had put a hold on the effort to designate Mir as a global terrorist at the United Nations. The proposal has now been blocked by Beijing.
Mir is one of India's most wanted terrorists, and the United States has set a $5 million bounty on his head for his participation in the 26/11 Mumbai terror strikes carried out by Pakistan-based LeT terrorists.
ALSO READ | US President Biden's Son Charged With Tax Evasion, Illegal Possession Of Weapons
In June of last year, he was sentenced to more than 15 years in prison in a terror-financing case by a court in Pakistan, which is battling to get off the grey list of the Paris-based Financial Action Task Force (FATF).
Earlier, Pakistani officials declared Mir dead, but Western countries were skeptical and wanted confirmation of his death. In 2021, this problem became a key sticking point in FATF's evaluation of Pakistan's progress on the action plan.
"Mir was LeT’s operations manager for the attacks, playing a leading role in their planning, preparation, and execution,” the US State Department was quoted by PTI in its report.
Beijing, Islamabad's all-weather buddy, has frequently put stays on UN Security Council sanctions committee designations to blacklist Pakistan-based terrorists.