First, Pakistan claimed he was dead. Then, that he had been sentenced to 15 years in jail. Now, China has vetoed his Security Council designation as a global terrorist.
by Massimo Introvigne
In June 2022, Bitter Winter reported that India had been quietly informed by Pakistan that terrorist Sajid Mir had been “secretly” sentenced to 15 years in jail. There was a good reason to inform India, notwithstanding the bad relations between the two countries. Sajid Mir had been the chief organizer of the bloody Mumbai terrorist attacks of November 2008, which left 166 dead and more than 300 injured.
Pakistan also wanted to show it was complying with its promises to crack down on terrorist organizations based on its soil, and avoid retaliations by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), an international body that blacklists countries protecting terrorists.
As we mentioned in our 2022 article, there was only one problem with that. Sajid Mir was officially dead. The same Pakistani authorities had announced his death in 2016. But the United States, India, and the FATF did not buy it.
Now officially Sajid Mir is being punished for his crimes by Pakistan. However, a new strange and contradictory incident occurred. The United Nations Security Council has the power to declare individuals as “global terrorists,” which comes with an assets freeze, a travel ban, and an arms embargo. As soon as Pakistan confirmed that Sajid Mir was alive, India and the United States, supported by several other countries, asked the Security Council to declare him a “global terrorist.”
In September 2022, China, which holds veto power at the Security Council, “paused” the designation. On June 21, 2023, it finally vetoed it.
Why? China is ready to accuse of “terrorism” any Uyghur who criticizes the atheistic Chinese Communist Party in the name of Islam on social media. Sajid Mir organized one of the worst terrorist attacks in Asian history.
Obviously, China used its veto power because it was requested to do so by Pakistan, its most loyal regional ally. But why would Pakistan protect Sajid Mir from having access to his (considerable) money, travel internationally, and buy weapons? Isn’t he in jail? The answer is, we don’t know. Pakistan lied when it said he was dead. Perhaps it is lying again when it claims he is in jail.
Or he is in some sort of comfortable jail, a resource ready to be deployed if need will be against India and the West—with a little help from Chinese friends.
Massimo Introvigne (born June 14, 1955 in Rome) is an Italian sociologist of religions. He is the founder and managing director of the Center for Studies on New Religions (CESNUR), an international network of scholars who study new religious movements. Introvigne is the author of some 70 books and more than 100 articles in the field of sociology of religion. He was the main author of the Enciclopedia delle religioni in Italia (Encyclopedia of Religions in Italy). He is a member of the editorial board for the Interdisciplinary Journal of Research on Religion and of the executive board of University of California Press’ Nova Religio. From January 5 to December 31, 2011, he has served as the “Representative on combating racism, xenophobia and discrimination, with a special focus on discrimination against Christians and members of other religions” of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE). From 2012 to 2015 he served as chairperson of the Observatory of Religious Liberty, instituted by the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs in order to monitor problems of religious liberty on a worldwide scale.
