The Congress on Thursday hit out at the Modi Government for singularly claiming credit for the designation of Masood Azhar as a global terrorist by the UN and asked it to give a reply to Pakistan’s claim that Kashmir and Pulwama were de-linked in the JeM chief’s listing.
Condemning Pakistan’s claims that it agreed to Azhar’s listing after all “political references”, including attempts to link him to the Pulwama attack, were removed from the proposal, the Congress said it was a serious matter and a reply must be given to “Pakistan’s mischief”.
In 2009, India first moved a proposal by itself to designate Azhar a global terrorist. In 2016 again, India moved the proposal with the P3 -- the United States, the United Kingdom and France -- in the UN’s 1267 Sanctions Committee to ban Azhar, also the mastermind of the attack on the Pathankot air base in January 2016.
In 2017, the P3 nations moved a similar proposal again. However, on all occasions China, a veto-wielding permanent member of the UN Security Council, blocked India’s proposal from being adopted by the Sanctions Committee.
Former Union Minister P Chidambaram said Congress is happy that the process of designating JeM chief Masood Azhar as a global terrorist concluded successfully. He also asked why Pakistani premier Imran Khan wants Narendra Modi to continue as India’s prime minister.
Reacting to the development, Chidambaram said Azhar was released in 1999 by a BJP government after the hijack of an Indian Airlines aircraft. “After Masood Azhar masterminded the Mumbai terror attack in 2008, the process to name him as a global terrorist was started by a Congress/UPA government in 2009. We are happy that the process has concluded successfully in 2019. But why does the Prime Minister of Pakistan want Mr Modi to continue as Prime Minister of India?,” the former home minister said in a series of tweets.
Congress spokesperson Rajeev Shukla hit out at the remarks made by Union minister Arun Jaitley and Nirmala Sitharaman at a joint press conference, saying such designations were the result of a continuous process and just one government should not take credit for it.
It was the Congress that had got Saeed and Zakiur Rahman Lakhvi as well as other terrorists designated as global terrorists, Shukla said. “I also condemn Pakistan government’s claim that it is their diplomatic victory. They are saying that we have got Pulwama and Kashmir de-linked from it (the listing) and then this declaration has been made,” he said.
Shukla said that the government should give a reply to “this mischief (claim)” of Pakistan that they have de-linked Kashmir and the Pulwama incident while banning Azhar. “This is a serious matter. For us, Pulwama is very important as Azhar had a direct role and he had accepted it. Then it would mean that the earlier incidents and the 26/11 (Mumbai terror attacks) was the basis for banning him for which we had submitted all documents. So, the government’s ministers should do a press conference on this also,” he said.