Pakistan-based Abdul Rehman Makki, the deputy chief of the terror outfit Lashkar-e-Taiba, has been blacklisted as a global terrorist by the United Nations. He is the brother-in-law of Hafiz Saeed, the founder of Lashkar-e-Taiba.

The UN Security Council’s 1267 Al Qaeda Sanctions Committee added 68-year-old Makki to its list of designated terrorists on Monday, after China withdrew its hold on a joint proposal by India and the US. Individuals and entities in the list are subject to the assets freeze, travel ban, and arms embargo.

Who is Abdul Rehman Makki?

Makki was mainly known for his proximity to Hafiz Saeed, until the latter was jailed in 2019 for 35 years. He continues to front for him now, as he had in the past when the LeT/Jamat-ud-Dawa (JuD) leader, listed by the UN Security Council as a terrorist after the 2008 Mumbai attacks, went in and out of house arrest.

The sanctions committee said that while Makki has held his leadership positions within LeT and JUD, the LeT has been responsible for or had involvement in prominent attacks, including the Red Fort Attack in which six terrorists stormed the Red Fort on December 22, 2000, and opened indiscriminate fire on the security forces present.

Makki too uses the title of Hafiz, an honorific for someone who has memorised the Quran, as well as the title of Naib Emir of JuD. He would also be present at court hearings of Saeed’s petitions challenging his detention. Known to be a fiery speaker, Makki has been a regular at the February Kashmir Solidarity Day rallies in Islamabad. Kashmir solidarity day is officially observed in Pakistan on February 5. At one such rally in 2010, two years after the Mumbai attacks, Makki threatened “rivers of blood” in India for not handing over Kashmir to Pakistan and threatened to seize it by force.