The UNSC 1267 sanctions committee should name Mohiuddin Aurangzeb Alamgir and Ali Kashif Jan, two Jaish-e-Mohammed terrorists with bases in Pakistan, as global terrorists, France and India are proposing ahead of foreign minister Catherine Colonna’s first visit to the nation on Wednesday. Colonna will visit Delhi on September 14 and 15 for the first time as a minister and will meet with the highest officials of the nation.
Officials with knowledge of the situation claim that on April 12, the Ministry of Home Affairs identified Jan Ali Kashif and Aurangzeb Alamgir alias Mujahid Bhai and Ali Kashif Jan alias Aurangzeb Alamgir as terrorists under the UAPA, 1967.
The main conspirator, fund-raiser, and infiltration commander behind the 2019 Pulwama terror attack that resulted in the deaths of 40 CRPF members by a JeM suicide bomber was Alamgir, a native of Bahawalpur in Pakistan. According to the sources, Alamgir is also organising terror strikes in the Valley and smuggling Afghan militants into Jammu and Kashmir.
According to the officials, Jan, a native of Charsadda, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, is the operational commander and a member of the JeM group’s core planning committee in Bahawalpur, which is controlled by the Masood Azhar Alvi family business.
Jan is a key defendant in many cases being looked into by the National Investigation Agency. Jan was the handler of the terrorists engaged in the 2016 attack on the Pathankot Air Force Station (NIA). One of the JeM’s most important leaders, Jan launches infiltrators into India as the Pakistan Army provides cover fire from the Sialkot area, across the Line of Control in Jammu.
The two Pakistanis will only be labelled as international terrorists if none of the five permanent members of the UNSC exercise a veto, despite the fact that France and India have brought this proposal before the 1267 Committee. China has always opposed any similar suggestions put up by India and its allies, but it is anticipated that the US will back the designation. Due to Moscow’s status as China’s new “no boundaries” friend and the UK’s strong ties to Pakistan, the relationship between the UK and Russia may go anyway.
The visit of Foreign Minister Colonna will strengthen the strategic connections between the two nations and forward the decisions made by French President Emmanuel Macron and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi following the latter’s trip to Paris on May 4. In a network of trilateral alliances with the UAE, Australia, and Southeast Asia that runs parallel to the QUAD grouping, India and France have a strong political and strategic partnership.
Despite being a close partner of the US, France maintains strategic independence in the Indo-Pacific due to its anchor in India. The two nations are active in many different fields, such as space security, marine domain awareness, dark shipping, and ocean bed mapping. India and France are willing defence partners, and France is eager to provide full technology transfer for the twin-engine AMCA project, from the aircraft structure to the engines. As part of the “Aatmanirbhar Bharat” project, it is also prepared to collaborate with India on the development of cutting-edge submarines, including nuclear-powered ones, as well as on the cooperative development of missiles, loitering ammunition, and aircraft engines. The national security advisers of the two nations, however, are in charge of the relationship’s defense-related aspects.
According to senior officials, Minister Colonna will meet with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar, and NSA Ajit Doval to address the grave situation in Ukraine, and Taiwan, and the threat of terrorism and radicalization coming from the Af-Pak area. The Indo-Pacific, cyber security, cyber defence, the civil nuclear power plant being built at Jaitapur, and space cooperation will all be topics of discussion by the French minister.
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