Hindustan Times (Lucknow)

Pak tries to implicate Indian cook

- Shishir Gupta letters@hindustant­imes.com ■

NEW DELHI: Pakistan’s efforts to implicate India and Indian nationals over terror-related crimes has resulted in the country now targeting an Indian cook.

According to diplomats and foreign ministry officials, Pakistan, with the help of its allweather ally China has moved the UN Security Council under resolution 1267 (the Al-Qaida Sanctions Committee, or the 1267 Sanctions Committee as it is now known) seeking action against Indian national Ajoy Mistry who it describes as an Islamic State terrorist targeting Pakistan. Islamabad’s proposal to add Mistry in the ISIL and al Qaida Sanctions List has been circulated by the chair of the 1267 Committee to the other members this month, the diplomats added.

Last month, the US blocked another China-sponsored proposal by Pakistan to designate Venumadhav Dongara, an Indian engineer working on transmissi­on lines in Afghanista­n, as a global terrorist by the 1267 committee.

As reported by HT, Islamabad filed an FIR against him in Peshawar on March 11, 2019 on charges of supplying weapons, ammunition­s and explosives to the Tariq Gidar terror group, which allegedly attacked Peshawar air base on September 18, 2015. Fearing that Pakistan may want to make Dongara the next Kulbushan Jadhav, Indian security agencies evacuated the engineer from Afghanista­n on September 8. Jadhav, a former Indian Navy officer turned businessma­n was allegedly picked up by Pakistan’s spy agency in Iran. He was sentenced to death but the Internatio­nal Court of Justice this year stayed the execution and has asked Pakistan to review the entire case.

According to South Block officials, the list entry and narrative summary for designatin­g Ajoy Mistry under the 1267 resolution describes him as a “coordinato­r of terror network in Afghanista­n, who works with ISIL-Khorasan to undertake different terror activities in Pakistan”. The submitted dossier also claims that he was involved in “facilitati­ng the movement of foreign terrorist fighters from Syria and Iraq to Afghanista­n and held a number of meetings with ISIL-Khorsan leaders in 2017 and 2018”. It further states that Ajoy Mistry provided finances to ISIL-K leadership in August-September 2018 to carry out suicide attacks at Kalaya Bazaar, Orakzai, Khyber Pakhtunkhw­a, Pakistan.

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