10 Taliban taken off UN terror list

UNITED NATIONS: Ten Taliban members and 35 al Qaeda members and affiliates have been removed from a UN sanctions terror list after an exhaustive review of 488 names, Austria’s UN ambassador announced on Monday.

“As a result of the review of 488 names, 45 were delisted,” Thomas Mayr-Harting, the chair of the UN Security Council panel that maintains a blacklist of individuals and entities linked to al Qaeda and the Taliban, told reporters.

He said those removed, following requests from governments, include 10 individuals who had been associated with the Taliban as well as 14 individuals and 21 entities linked at some point to al Qaeda.

Last week, five of the 10 Taliban removed from the list were named as Abdul  Satar Paktin, Abdul Hakim Mujahid Muhammad Awrang, a former Afghan envoy to the UN; Abdul Salam Zaeef, author of “My life with the Taliban;” and two officials who are now deceased.

Individuals on the list are subject to asset freezes, a travel ban and an arms embargo.

Mayr-Hartin said 433 names -- 132 Taliban and 311 from al Qaeda -- were confirmed on the list, although a final decision for 66 among them is still pending. As part of his efforts to promote national reconciliation, Afghan President Hamid Karzai had asked the Security Council to remove names of some Taliban members who were not linked to al Qaeda from the terror blacklist.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 3^rd, 2010.