India Rebuffs UN Rapporteur Over India-Based Tag for D-Company
India has rejected a United Nations special rapporteur's description of Dawood Ibrahim's D-Company as an "India-based" criminal group, saying the report contained "glaring inaccuracies" and that errors of this kind hurt the world body's credibility.
Raghoo Puri, a First Secretary in India's UN mission, made the objection on Wednesday, October 21, at a session of the General Assembly's Third Committee. He was responding to Ben Saul, the UN's special rapporteur on human rights and counter-terrorism, during an interactive dialogue.
'Read in Isolation'
Saul's July report said that in 2003 the Security Council had listed the leader of "the India-based D-Company" for association with Al-Qaeda. "Read in isolation, this line paints a very different picture from the actual reality," Puri said.
Puri said India has sought Ibrahim and his group over terror attacks since 1993, and that this appears in the UN's own narrative summary explaining why he was listed under the 1267 sanctions regime. "Not mentioning this fact is regrettable, and such incompetence on part of special mandate holders does this organisation tremendous harm," he said.
"Let me correct it for the record," Puri said. He said Ibrahim "fled India much before the 2003 listing", and that he was outside India when he was listed over his links to Al Qaeda and Osama bin Laden.
He added that, according to the UN listing, Ibrahim lives in the same country where bin Laden was found and killed, a clear reference to Pakistan. US Navy SEALs killed bin Laden in a raid in the Pakistani city of Abbottabad in 2011.
What the UN Record Says
The sanctions committee's narrative summary states that Dawood Ibrahim Kaskar was listed on 3 November 2003 for association with Al-Qaida, Usama bin Laden and the Taliban. The summary adds that India wants him over the 12 March 1993 Bombay Exchange bombings, in which more than 250 people died and more than a thousand were hurt.
Call for Accountability
Puri said India had raised in other forums its "serious concern at the unacceptable situation" of the special rapporteur issuing reports with factual inaccuracies without being held accountable for them. Such reports, he said, leave member states facing a fait accompli at a time when the UN's legitimacy is already being questioned. Special rapporteurs are not paid directly by the UN, NDTV noted.
He also pointed to "clear bias" in parts of the report and urged that "the highest standards of probity and impartiality be maintained". "It seems to have become fashionable for sponsors of terror to use human rights and the framework of counter-terrorism to justify their misdeeds," he said.
Reply to Pakistan
Puri dismissed a statement by Pakistan's delegation as "pure propaganda made for very narrow political gains". "Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh are an inalienable part of India and have been so and will always remain," he said, adding that he would not dignify the Pakistani delegate's remarks with further comment.