LeT’s Abdul Rehman Makki releases video: ‘Never met Osama Bin Laden’
Days after the United Nations Security Council added Abdul Rehman Makki to its list of designated terrorists, the Pakistan-based deputy leader of the Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) released a video on Thursday from the Kot Lakhpat Jail in Lahore denying any links with al Qaeda or the Islamic State.
On Monday, the UN Security Council’s 1267 ISIL (Da’esh) and Al Qaeda Sanctions Committee designated Makki as a global terrorist, the world body’s second such designation stemming from the 2008 terrorist attacks in Mumbai that killed 166 people.
The UN move subjected him to an assets freeze, travel ban and arms embargo, after years of efforts by India and its allies.
Makki, the brother-in-law of the Mumbai terror attack mastermind and Jamat-ud-Dawa (JuD) Hafiz Saeed, however, did not mention the 26/11 attack that killed 166 people, news agency PTI reported.
“I believe that the grounds for my listing are based on heresy and disinformation by the Indian government. I never met Osama Bin Laden, Ayman Al-Zawahiri or Abdullah Azam as alleged by some propaganda reports,” PTI quoted Makki as saying.
Makki was arrested in Pakistan’s Punjab province in 2019 and convicted in November and December 2020 in two separate cases on charges of terror financing. He is serving multiple sentences in terror finance cases along with Saeed and some other LeT and JuD senior leaders.
Makki said he considers the views and actions of Al-Qaeda and ISIS totally opposite of what he believes in.
“I denounce all kinds of terrorism and violence perpetrated by such groups. I believe in the principal position of the Pakistani government regarding Kashmir…,” he said.
Regretting the UNSC decision, Makki said, “No due process was followed or information was provided regarding these listing.”
He denied allegations against him for being a faculty member of Islamic University Islamabad in the 1980s where he was accused of meeting Al Qaeda leaders or Afghan commanders.
India had submitted five names for designation under 1267 in 2022: Makki (LeT), Abdul Rauf Asghar (Jaish-e-Mohammed, JeM), Sajid Mir (LeT), Shahid Mahmood (LeT), and Talha Saeed (LeT).
Each of these five names was initially placed on technical hold by one member state while all other 14 members of the Council agreed to their listing.
On Tuesday, China finally lifted its ‘technical hold’ on the designation of Makki as a global terrorist under the 1267 UN Sanctions Committee after the country was left isolated in the Security Council.