The United Nations on Wednesday designated Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) chief Masood Azhar a “global terrorist” after China lifted its “technical hold” on his listing under the UNSC 1267 Sanctions Committee, which includes ISIS and Al-Qaeda.
The designation means there will now be a freeze on Azhar’s assets, ban on his travels and an embargo on the supply of arms to him by another country. The JeM had already been designated as a “terror outfit” by the UN.
“Big, small, all join together. Masood Azhar designated as a terrorist in UN sanctions list. Grateful to all for their support,” tweeted India’s Ambassador to the United Nations, Syed Akbaruddin yesterday to inform the world about this major development.
Reacting to this development, Pakistan said it would “immediately enforce the sanctions imposed on the JeM chief”.
“Pakistan will immediately enforce the sanctions imposed on the JeM leader as it always does with UN cases. This entails a ban on foreign travel, assets freeze and arms embargo… Pakistan maintains that terrorism is a menace to the world, including the Indian state-sponsored terrorism against innocent Kashmiris in IOK,” Pakistani English daily Dawn quoted Pakistan Foreign Office spokesperson Dr Mohammad Faisal as saying.
China’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said that Beijing lifted its hold on Azhar after “it found no objection to the listing proposal by the US, the UK and France”.
“On this listing issue, China has been communicating with relevant parties in a constructive and responsible fashion. Recently, relevant countries revised and re-submitted the materials for the listing proposal to the 1267 Committee. After careful study of the revised materials and taking into consideration the opinions of relevant parties concerned, China does not have an objection to the listing proposal,” he said.
One of the sponsors of the proposal to list Azhar as a global terrorist at the UN was France and was the first country to welcome the move. “This decision taken at the United Nations Security Council signals the successful realisation of our efforts,” a statement released by the French Foreign Ministry said.
This development comes a month after China, which wields veto power as a permanent member of the UN Security Council, had put a hold on a fresh proposal by the US, UK and France to impose a ban on Azhar.
It is worthwhile to mention that Azhar’s JeM claimed responsibility for the attack in Pulwama in Indian-administered Jammu and Kashmir this February in which 40 paramilitary personnel were killed.
This was the fourth such bid at the UN in the last 10 years to list Azhar as a “global terrorist” under the UNSC 1267 Sanctions Committee. India got lucky in the fourth attempt as China had blocked Azhar’s listing in 2009, 2016 and 2017.
Interestingly, China had placed its technical hold despite Beijing signing off on a UNSC statement that “condemned in the strongest terms” the Pulwama attack and named JeM for the “heinous and cowardly suicide bombing”.
Azhar and his outfit are held responsible by India for several attacks on India, including the one on its Parliament in 2001, at Pathankot air force base and an army camp in Uri in 2016, which gathered prominence apart from many others.
