Pakistan actions against Azhar, Lakhvi ahead of FATF meet a farce: India

Actions like arrest order against proscribed terrorist Masood Azhar and conviction of Mumbai terror attack mastermind Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi have not impressed India.

New Delhi sees these actions as a farce attempt to show compliance ahead of FATF plenary next month which could blacklist Pakistan. India has termed Pakistan action against the UN proscribed terrorists as farcical and also urged the international community to hold Pakistan to account.

Talking to reporters at the weekly press briefing, MEA spokesperson Anurag Srivastava said the timing of these actions by Pakistan clearly suggest the intention of conveying the sense of compliance ahead of the next FATF plenary meeting.

“The timing of these actions clearly suggest the intention of conveying the sense of compliance ahead of the next FATF plenary meeting in February 2021. It has become routine for Pakistan to come up with such farcical actions prior to important meetings,” Srivastava said.

“UN proscribed entities and designated terrorists act as proxies of Pakistani establishment to fulfil its anti-India agenda. It is for the international community to hold Pakistan to account and ensure it takes credible actions against terror groups,

terror infrastructure and individual terrorists,” he added.

An anti-terrorism court in Lahore on Friday sentenced 26/11 Mumbai Terror attacks mastermind Zakiur-ur-Rehman Lakhvi, a leader of the proscribed Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) terrorist outfit, to 15 years in prison in a terror-funding case.

The Counter-Terrorism Department (CTD) of Punjab Police had arrested Lakhvi on January 2 on the charges of terror financing case. An arrest warrant was issued against Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) chief Masood Azhar on the charges of terror financing by an anti-terrorism court in Pakistan on Thursday.

WITH ANI INPUTS