‘Glaring inaccuracies’: India rebukes UN over ‘India-based’ tag for Dawood’s D-Company

India has strongly objected to a United Nations special rapporteur’s description of fugitive gangster Dawood Ibrahim’s D-Company as an “India-based” criminal group. New Delhi flagged “glaring inaccuracies” in a counter-terrorism report, warning 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 these objections on Wednesday during a meeting of the Third Committee of the UN General Assembly. He was responding to a report by Ben Saul, the special rapporteur on the promotion and protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms while countering terrorism. Puri expressed “serious concern at the unacceptable situation of the SR releasing reports with factual inaccuracies, while not being held accountable for them.”

Puri 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. He specifically pointed out “particularly glaring inaccuracies” concerning India, rejecting the description of the criminal organisation as India-based. Puri clarified that while the UN Security Council listed the leader of D-Company in 2003 for association with Al-Qaeda, this “paints a very different picture from the actual reality.”

He stated that Ibrahim and his organisation have been wanted in India for terror attacks since 1993, a fact documented in the UN Security Council's Al-Qaeda sanctions listing under the 1267 sanctions regime. Puri called the omission of this fact “regrettable” and “incompetence.” He corrected the record, stating Ibrahim “fled India much before the 2003 listing” and was listed “from outside our country.” Puri also noted that the UN listing placed Ibrahim in the same country where Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden was found and killed, referring to Pakistan, where bin Laden was killed in Abbottabad in 2011.

What to watch: Further discussions or clarifications from the UN regarding the report's wording.

Editor's note: The article is a well-structured and accurate account of the UN meeting, correctly attributing statements to Raghoo Puri.