China helping TRF slip through UNSC sanctions scrutiny

Time of India

09-05-2025

India's repeated submissions on The Resistance Front (TRF) have hit a Chinese wall with the 1267
UN Security Council Monitoring Team
, which has refused to mention TRF in its six-monthly report to the Sanctions Committee. Instead, Chungjie Li, a Chinese diplomat, who leads the South and Central Asia group, has onboarded Pakistan's requests by mentioning the Balochistan Liberation Army and the Majeed Brigade.
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The Monitoring Team (MT) is a key organ of the 1267 UNSC Al-Qaeda Sanctions Committee. Its principal tasks include monitoring the implementation of sanctions on those already proscribed and to also report on fresh updates as well as developments. For this, the team has leads for different regions who collate information from respective countries which goes into a report, prepared every six months, for the committee.
India has, in fact, made three submissions each on
Lashkar-e-Taiba
offshoot TRF and also the Peoples Anti-Fascist Front (PAFF), an offshoot of the Jaish-e-Mohammed. The first submission was in December 2023, followed by a detailed one in May 2024 for the next report and then in December 2024 for the latest report filed by the MT in February 2025. Chungjie Li, who has worked on counter-terrorism and non-proliferation for the Chinese foreign ministry, took over as the regional lead in May 2024 and impacted both the reports filed last year. The next report is due in a few months for which India is slated to hold a meeting with the MT soon.
India's submissions
∙December 2023: India informed the MT that Pakistan has floated several small terror off-shoot groups of the LeT and JeM, namely TRF and PAFF. It put on record that sleeper cells and cadres were recruited online by these groups, following which arms training was also provided. Until then, 27 accused persons had been chargesheeted.
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∙May 2024: India informed that TRF has been proscribed as a LeT front under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act for issuing threats on social media. Telegram channels - Resistance Media, Kashmir Fight, TRF Fight and JeM-JFK public - were detailed, where claims of attacks were made alongside postings on the Pulwama attack.
∙December 2024: This report detailed TRF's June 9, 2024, attack on a bus carrying pilgrims in J&K's Reasi, attacks on security personnel and the attack on Z Morh Tunnel site in Ganderbal in which seven persons were killed.
A separate set of submissions on PAFF detailed incidents it had claimed, its social media handles and investigation findings of the National Investigation Agency which linked the group to JeM. The next submission will provide details of the Pahalgam attack as well as threats targeting the Lieutenant Governor of Jammu and Kashmir.
While India's submissions were ignored, the latest February 2025 report of the MT records: "The Balochistan Liberation Army (not listed) claimed that the Majeed Brigade (MB, not listed) carried out several high-casualty attacks in the reporting period."
It also has mentions of East Turkestan Islamic Movement as well as its new name Turkistan Islamic Party, an Uighyur outfit active in China's Xinjiang. The report has specifically noted that its numbers are growing in Afghanistan.
In the previous report of July 2024, specific mention was made of attacks on Chinese investments in Pakistan. "Two member states note the claims of responsibility by Majeed Brigade (not listed) for the March 2 attack on Gwadar Port Complex and March 26 attack on Naval Air Base Turbat in Pakistan, intended as a warning to foreign investors to withdraw completely." On the other hand, there has been no mention of LeT and JeM in any of these reports under Chungjie Li's watch even though their activities have to be monitored as they are already sanctioned entities.
Clearly, those familiar with the details told ET that China has been acting in connivance with Pakistan to block Indian requests. This is a pattern which India also saw while sanctioning individuals from LeT and JeM. In fact, Abdul Rauf Asghar, who was reportedly killed in India's strikes on Bahawalpur, is one such case. India and the US jointly sponsored his case for terror designation but China as permanent member of the UNSC blocked it in 2023 and is yet to remove the hold. Three other LeT terrorists - Sajid Mir, Shahid Mehmood and Talha Saeed - have still not been designated in 1267 sanctions list due to China's hold or objections.
As a permanent member, China will always be a member of the 1267 committee. Non-Permanent members also can get into some of these committees. ET has gathered that Pakistan, which is currently a non-permanent UNSC member, has made a bid for this membership.