IT Correspondent
Mumbai, July 22:
With United Nations (UN) declaring “Tehrik-e-Taliban” Pakistan chief Noor Wali Mehsud (47) as global terrorist, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has cautioned its regulated entities, including scheduled public and private sector banks across the country, that no account should be opened in his or his associates’ names in their banks.
The circular dated 18 July 2020 issued by RBI here states that the Union Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) has forwarded a press release of the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) Committee, which has stipulated the assets freeze, travel ban and arms embargo against Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) (Da’esh), Al-Qaida and associated individuals.
The circular states that as per section 51 of RBI’s “Master Direction” on “Know Your Customer” dated February 25, 2016 ( as amended on April 20, 2020), the regulated entities
shall ensure that in terms of section 51A of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) (UAPA) Act, 1967, the accounts of individuals/entities appearing in the lists of banned persons are not opened in their banks. The names of individuals/entities with suspected terrorist links are periodically circulated by the United Nations Security Council (UNSC).
The UN Security Council’s 1267 ISIL and Al-Qaida Sanctions Committee added Mehsud, to the ISIL (Da’esh) and Al-Qaida Sanctions List on 16 July,2020, subjecting the Pakistani national to an assets freeze, travel ban and arms embargo.
Blacklisting by the Security Council entails that all states are required to freeze without delay the funds and other financial assets or economic resources of designated individuals and entities. They are also required to prevent the entry into or transit through their territories by the designated individuals and prevent the direct or indirect supply, sale and transfer from their territories or by their nationals outside their territories, or using their flag vessels or aircraft, of arms and related materiel of all types, spare parts, and technical advice, assistance, or training related to military activities, to designated individuals and entities.
Mufti Noor Wali Mehsud was named the leader of “Tehrik-e Taliban Pakistan” (TTP), following the death of former TTP leader Maulana Fazlullah in June 2018. The Group was designated by UNSC on 29 July, 2011 for its association with Al-Qaida. Under Noor Wali’s leadership, TTP has claimed responsibility for numerous deadly terrorist attacks across Pakistan, including an attack targeting Pakistani security forces in North Waziristan in July 2019 and a bomb attack against Pakistani soldiers in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in August 2019.
TTP had also claimed responsibility for an attempted bombing in Times Square on first May, 2010, and in April 2010 it had launched a multi-pronged assault against the United States Consulate in Peshawar, killing at least six Pakistanis and wounding 20 others, the UN’s Committee added. The TTP was blacklisted by the UN on July 29, 2011 for its association with al-Qaeda.