Mir, believed to be in his mid-40s, is one of India’s most wanted terrorists and has a bounty of $5 million placed on his head by the US for his role in the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks. In June last year, Mir was jailed for over 15 years in a terror-financing case by an anti-terrorism court in Pakistan. Pakistani authorities had in the past claimed Mir had died, but Western countries remained unconvinced and demanded proof of his death. This issue became a major sticking point in FATF’s assessment of Pakistan’s progress on the action plan late last year.
Mir is a senior member of the Pakistan-based LeT and is wanted for his involvement in the November 2008 terrorist attacks in Mumbai. “Mir was LeT’s operations manager for the attacks, playing a leading role in their planning, preparation, and execution,” the US State Department has said.
Not the first time for China to block India’s move
Beijing, an all-weather friend of Islamabad, has repeatedly put holds on listings to blacklist Pakistan-based terrorists under the sanctions committee of the UN Security Council. The US State Department had said that Mir has been a senior member of LeT since approximately 2001.
From 2006 to 2011, Mir was in charge of LeT’s external operations and planned and directed various terrorist attacks on behalf of the group. Additionally, Mir conspired to commit a terrorist attack against a newspaper and its employees in Denmark between 2008 and 2009. For his role in the Mumbai attacks, Mir was indicted in the United States in April 2011.
In August 2012, the US Department of the Treasury designated Mir as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist. As a result of this designation, among other consequences, all property and interests in property of Mir that are subject to US jurisdiction are blocked, and US persons are generally prohibited from engaging in any transactions with Mir. “Mir is on the FBI’s Most Wanted Terrorists List,” according to information on the State Department website.