ISLAMABAD: Pakistan on Thursday regretted the politicisation of the United Nations sanctions regime after five UN Security Council members blocked its bid to get two Indians accused of terrorism here listed.

“We regret the decision by some members of the UNSC Sanctions Committee to block the designation of two Indian nationals, Gob­in­da Patnaik and Angara Appaji, to the sanctions list on 2 September 2020,” Foreign Office spokesman Zahid Hafeez Chaudhri said at the weekly media briefing.

Pakistan had proposed designation of the Indian nationals under the United Nations Security Council’s Islamic State of Iraq and Levant and Al Qaeda Sanctions list in 2019.

As per media reports, the United States, United Kingdom, France, Germany and Belgium blocked the request to list the two Indian nationals as global terrorists under the UN Security Council 1267 sanctions committee on the pretext that evidence was not provided.

Assails India’s imposition of Hindi language in occupied Kashmir

Besides, the spokesman said that the forcible imposition of Hindi language on Kashmiris in occupied territory was part of India’s actions aimed at changing the demography of the region and depriving Kashmiris of their identity.

“Pakistan condemns the Ind­ian government’s decision to forcibly impose Hindi language on the Kashmiri people in Occupied Kashmir through the ‘Jammu and Kashmir Languages Bill, 2020’, approved by the Indian cabinet,” he said.

Published in Dawn, September 4th, 2020