Pakistan had blocked the visas of a UN team that planned to visit Pakistan to interview Mumbai terror attack organiser Hafiz Saeed, Times of India reported on Thursday. The interview was considered a routine response to Saeed's application for removal from the list of UN-recognised terrorists.
ANI further reported that, after the rejection of the visa, the UN ombudsman conducted a video interview, following which they recommended against the removal of Saeed's name from the list.
The UN decision to reject appeal of Saeed, also a co-founder of terror group Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), came after India provided detailed evidence including "highly confidential information" about his activities, sources said, adding that the verdict of the global body was conveyed to his lawyer Haider Rasul Mirza earlier this week.
Saeed, chief of UN-designated terrorist organisation Jammat-ud-Dawa (JuD), was banned on December 10, 2008 by the United Nations Security Council after the horrific Mumbai attacks in which 166 people were killed.
Saeed had filed an appeal with the UN through Lahore-based law firm Mirza and Mirza in 2017, while he was still under house arrest in Pakistan, for removal of the ban.
Last month, the US, the UK and France made a fresh bid at the UN to ban JeM head Masood Azhar, who is also residing in Pakistan as per Pakistani foreign minister's admission. JeM is already a UN-designated terrorist organisation.
-Inputs from PTI
