'India-based' D-Company tag: New Delhi rebukes UN rapporteur, flags 'glaring inaccuracies'

NEW DELHI: India has pushed back against a United Nations special rapporteur’s description of fugitive gangster Dawood Ibrahim’s D-Company as an “India-based” criminal group, flagging “glaring inaccuracies” in a counter-terrorism report. New Delhi warned that such factual errors, coupled with a lack of accountability for UN experts, risk undermining the credibility of the world body.

Raghoo Puri, first secretary at India's Permanent Mission to the UN, raised the objections on Wednesday during a meeting of the Third Committee of the UN General Assembly, responding to a report by Ben Saul, the special rapporteur on the promotion and protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms while countering terrorism.“My delegation has been pointing out in other forums as well our serious concern at the unacceptable situation of the SR (Special Rapporteur) releasing reports with factual inaccuracies, while not being held accountable for them,” Puri said. He argued that the publication of reports containing factual errors without adequate accountability left member states with little scope to respond before the findings entered public discourse.

According to news agency ANI, he added, “It is in this context that we would like to point out some particularly glaring inaccuracies as far as my country is concerned.”Puri took issue with Saul's report, which stated that the UN Security Council had listed the leader of “the India-based D-Company” in 2003 for association with Al-Qaeda.“Read in isolation, this line paints a very different picture from the actual reality,” Puri said, rejecting the description of the criminal organisation as India-based. He said Ibrahim and his organisation had been wanted in India in connection with terror attacks since 1993, adding that the circumstances were documented in the UN Security Council's Al-Qaeda sanctions listing.“This is clearly written in the narrative summary of reasons of listing under the 1267 sanctions regime,” Puri said.“Not mentioning this fact is regrettable, and such incompetence on part of special mandate holders does this organisation tremendous harm,” he added.

Seeking to clarify the timeline, Puri said, “Let me correct it for the record. This individual fled India much before the 2003 listing, and it was during this period from outside our country that he was listed for being associated with Al Qaeda and with Osama bin Laden.”Puri also said the UN listing placed Ibrahim in the same country where Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden was found and killed, referring to Pakistan.

Bin Laden was killed by US Navy SEALs in a raid in Abbottabad in 2011. The exchange puts the wording and factual basis of the rapporteur's report under scrutiny.

Key quotes

• “glaring inaccuracies”

• “My delegation has been pointing out in other forums as well our serious concern at the unacceptable situation of the SR (Special Rapporteur) releasing reports with factual inaccuracies, while not being held accountable for them,”

• “It is in this context that we would like to point out some particularly glaring inaccuracies as far as my country is concerned.”

• “the India-based D-Company”

• “Read in isolation, this line paints a very different picture from the actual reality,”

• “This is clearly written in the narrative summary of reasons of listing under the 1267 sanctions regime,”

• “Not mentioning this fact is regrettable, and such incompetence on part of special mandate holders does this organisation tremendous harm,”

• “Let me correct it for the record. This individual fled India much before the 2003 listing, and it was during this period from outside our country that he was listed for being associated with Al Qaeda and with Osama bin Laden.”