Disappointed by China blocking India’s attempt to have Jaish-e-Mohammad chief Masood Azhar designated as a terrorist by the United Nations, New Delhi is likely to raise the issue with Beijing this week during a meeting between External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj and her Chinese counterpart Wang Yi.
Sushma is expected to meet Wang in Moscow on the sidelines of RIC (Russia-India-China) ministerial meeting, wherein, sources said, she will convey India’s “disappointment” at the “political- level” at the “first given opportunity”.
last week, China used technical points to stop UN Sanctions Committee from designating Azhar as terrorist, maintaining that the case “did not meet the requirements” of the Security Council. The UN had banned the JeM in 2001 but India’s efforts for slapping travel and financial sanctions on Azhar after the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks and at the Pathankot airbase this year, could not materialse as China, that has veto powers, did not allow it apparently at the behest of Pakistan again.
last July, China had similarly halted India’s move in the UN to take action against Pakistan for its release of Mumbai terror attack mastermind Zaki-ur-Rehman lakhvi, saying that its stand was “based on facts and in the spirit of objectiveness and fairness” with Beijing again claiming at the time that it was in touch with New Delhi.
India had responding by saying: “We find it incomprehensible that while the Pakistan based JeM was listed in UN Security Council Committee as far back as 2001 for its well known terror activities and links to the Al Qaeda, the designation of the group’s main leader, financier and motivator has been put on a technical hold. The recent terror attack in Pathankot has shown that India continues to bear the dangerous consequences of not listing Masood Azhar.
“Given the global networking of terrorist groups, this has implications for the entire international community. It needs no emphasis that the UNSCR 1267 regime is an important building block of the UN global counter terrorism strategy that should aim to protect all member states and their citizens from the activities of terror groups such as JeM and its leader Mohamad Masood Azhar. Its working methods, based on the principles of unanimity and anonymity, is leading the Committee to adopt a selective approach to combating terrorism. This does not reflect well on the determination that the international community needs to display to decisively defeat the menace of terrorism.”