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Journalism of Courage
In what will cause disquiet in New Delhi, the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) 1267 sanctions committee has allowed payment of Pakistani Rs 1.5 lakh a month to 26/11 Mumbai attack planner Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi, the operations head of terror outfit Lashkar-e-Taiba.
The Indian Express has learnt that the monthly payment to Lakhvi will cover expenses relating to food (Rs 50,000), medicines (Rs 45,000), public utility charges (Rs 20,000), lawyer fee (Rs 20,000) and transportation (Rs 15,000).
Sources said this was granted following a request from the Imran Khan government to the UNSC 1267 sanctions committee.
Listed as a terrorist under the 1267 committee after the Mumbai terror attack, Lakhvi has been out on bail since 2015. Even the time he spent in a Pakistani jail was a farce — he had fathered a child while at the Adiala jail in Rawalpindi.
The 1267 committee also approved Pakistan’s request for monthly payment to sanctioned nuclear scientist Mahmood Sultan Bashiruddin. He founded and served as director of UN-listed entity Ummah Tameer-e-Nau.
Bashiruddin, who worked for Pakistan’s Atomic Energy Commission, had also met Osama bin Laden in Afghanistan. He was conferred the Sitara-e-Imtiaz (third highest civilian honour in Pakistan) by the government of Nawaz Sharif.
Both the US and UN sanctioned Bashiruddin and the radical Ummah Tameer-e-Nau in 2001 after the 9/11 attacks. He now lives freely in Pakistan.
Sources said Pakistan intends to pay him Rs 1.5 lakh a month to cover his basic expenses – Rs 60,000 for food, Rs 60,000 for medicines, Rs 20,000 for public utility charge, and Rs 10,000 for transportation.
In August 2019, the 1267 committee had approved Pakistan’s request to permit Mumbai terror attack mastermind and Lashkar-e-Taiba chief Hafiz Saeed to use his bank account for “basic expenses”.
According to UN Security Council resolutions and committee guidelines, there are provisions for exemptions from the assets freeze. It says member states — in this case, Pakistan — which intend to authorize, where appropriate, access to frozen funds or other financial assets or economic resources can request for exemption. The committee then takes a decision.
