China puts hold on proposal at U.N. to blacklist 26/11 LeT handler Sajid Mir

Sajid Mir is one of India's most wanted terrorists and has a bounty of $5 million placed on his head by the U.S. for his role in the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks

China has put a hold on a proposal moved at the United Nations by the U.S. and co-supported by India to designate Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) terrorist Sajid Mir, one of India’s most wanted terrorists and the main handler of the deadly 2008 Mumbai attacks, as a global terrorist.

It is learnt that Beijing put a hold Thursday on the proposal moved by the U.S. and co-designated by India to blacklist Mir under the 1267 Al-Qaeda Sanctions Committee of the U.N. Security Council as a global terrorist and subject him to assets freeze, travel ban and arms embargo.

Mir is one of India's most wanted terrorists and has a bounty of $5 million placed on his head by the U.S. for his role in the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks.

In June this year, he was jailed for over 15 years in a terror-financing case by an anti-terrorism court in Pakistan, which is struggling to exit the grey list of the FATF.

Read | The significance of Sajid Mir’s conviction in Pakistan

Pakistani authorities had in the past claimed Mir had died, but Western countries remained unconvinced and demanded proof of his death. This issue became a major sticking point in FATF's assessment of Pakistan's progress on the action plan late last year.

Mir is a senior member of the Pakistan-based LeT and is wanted for his involvement in the November 2008 terrorist attacks in Mumbai. “Mir was LeT’s operations manager for the attacks, playing a leading role in their planning, preparation and execution,” the U.S. State Department has said.