Pakistan welcomes decision by UN to add head of Pakistan Taliban to sanctions list

A Pakistani soldier keeps vigil next to a newly fenced border fencing along with Afghan's Paktika province border in Angoor Adda in Pakistan's South Waziristan tribal agency on October 18, 2017. ( AFP/ File)

• United Nations said on Friday it had added Mufti Noor Wali Mehsud to its Daesh and Al-Qaeda sanctions list
• Mehsud became leader of Pakistani Taliban in June 2018 after previous chief Fazlullah was killed in US-Afghan airstrike

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan said on Friday it welcomes the decision by the United Nations to add the head of the Pakistan Taliban, Mufti Noor Wali Mehsud, to its Daesh and Al-Qaeda sanctions list, thereby freezing his assets and imposing a travel ban and arms embargo on him.
The Pakistani Taliban named Mehsud as the new leader in June 2018, a week after the previous chief Mullah Fazlullah was killed in a US-Afghan airstrike in Afghanistan.

An undated photo of Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) leader Mufti Noor Wali Mehsud. (Source: Social media)

On 16 July, the UN Security Council Committee said pursuant to a number of resolutions concerning Daesh, Al-Qaeda, and associated individuals, groups, undertakings and entities, it had approved the addition of Mehsud “to its ISIL (Daesh) and Al-Qaeda Sanctions List of individuals and entities subject to the assets freeze, travel ban and arms embargo set out in paragraph 1 of Security Council resolution 2368 (2017), and adopted under Chapter VII of the Charter of the United Nations.”
“Pakistan welcomes the designation of Noor Wali Mehsud, the leader of TTP [Tehrek-i-Taliban Pakistan] by the UNSC 1267 Sanctions Committee on its ISIL (Daesh) and Al-Qaeda Sanctions List,” the foreign office said. “The sanctions are being implemented by Pakistan in compliance with the relevant UNSC resolutions and we hope that other countries will also follow suit.”
“Pakistan will continue to pursue its policy of fighting against those involved in participating, financing, planning, facilitating and perpetrating terrorism,” the foreign office added.
Mehsud was appointed deputy leader by Fazlullah in February 2018 after the previous second in command Khalid Mehsud was killed in Afghanistan’s Paktika province.
The Pakistani Taliban have waged a decade-long insurgency seeking to establish a harsh interpretation of religious rule but most of their fighters have now fled to Afghanistan.
They are separate from the Afghan Taliban who ruled Afghanistan for five years before being ousted in a 2001 US-led military intervention.