India slams China for blocking move to blacklist JeM leader

India on Friday described as the “most uncalled for” China blocking a proposal at the UN Security Council to designate Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) deputy chief Abdul Rauf Azhar as a global terrorist.

External affairs ministry spokesperson Arindam Bagchi said India will continue to pursue its principled position of bringing the terrorist to justice including through UN Security Council’s sanction regime.

“It is unfortunate that when it comes to our collective battle against terrorism, the international community has been unable to speak in one common voice,” he said at a media briefing. Abdul Rauf, the younger brother of JeM chief Masood Azhar, has been involved in planning and executing numerous terror strikes in India including the hijacking of Indian Airlines aircraft IC814 in 1999, the attack on Parliament in 2001 and the targeting of the IAF base in Pathankot in 2016. China on Wednesday put a technical hold on a joint proposal at the UN Security Council by India and the US to blacklist him. All other 14 member states of the top UN body supported the move.

The Chinese action came less than a month after Beijing blocked a similar joint proposal by India and the US to blacklist

Pakistan-based deputy leader of Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) Abdul Rehman Makki.

Makki too has been involved in raising funds, recruiting and radicalising youths to resort to violence and planning and executing attacks in India, including the Mumbai terror strikes.

The proposal to designate

Abdul Rauf was moved in the UN Security Council 1267 Sanctions Committee and the documents related to it were circulated among all the member nations. In past, China repeatedly blocked proposals to designate Pakistan-based terrorists.

After China blocked the proposal to designate Makki as an international terrorist, government officials said that the action ran counter to Beijing’s claim of combating terrorism.

Makki is the head of the political affairs of LeT and Jamat ud-Dawa (JuD), and served as head of LeT’s foreign relations department.

The LeT has been involved in major attacks in India such as the 26/11 Mumbai terror attack,

Red Fort Attack in 2000, Rampur CRPF Camp attack in January 2008, Khanpora (Baramulla) attack in 2018, Srinagar attack in June 2018 and Gurez/Bandipora attack in 2018, according to sources in the security establishment. The proposal to list Azhar under the UN Security Council sanctions regime had been circulated to all 15 members of the council’s Al-Qaeda and ISIL Sanctions Committee, also known as the 1267 Committee.

The technical hold, which can last for up to six months at a time under the Security Council’s procedures, effectively blocks proposals to designate terrorists until the measure is withdrawn by the country that placed it.

FOREIGN MINISTRY SAID INDIA WILL CONTINUE TO PURSUE ITS PRINCIPLED POSITION OF BRINGING AZHAR TO JUSTICE