U.N. blacklists leader of Pakistani group
ISLAMABAD — The United Nations on Wednesday added the leader of an outlawed Pakistani militant group to its sanctions blacklist after the group claimed responsibility for a February suicide attack in disputed Kashmir that killed 40 Indian soldiers.
Sanctions against Masood Azhar were confirmed by Pakistan’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Mohammad Faisal at a news conference in Islamabad. Azhar’s inclusion on the Security Council’s Islamic State and al-Qaida blacklist comes with a travel ban and freeze on his assets as well as an arms embargo.
Wednesday’s development comes less than three months after Azhar’s Jaish-e-Mohammed group claimed responsibility for the Feb. 14 attack in Kashmir, which is split between India and Pakistan and is claimed by both in its entirety.
India had intensified its lobbying to have Azhar blacklisted after the killing of its soldiers and New Delhi quickly welcomed the Security Council decision. Sanctions against Azhar had been delayed because Security Council member China had blocked them on three previous occasions. But the council went ahead after China no longer objected.
Azhar was blacklisted for his leadership of the al-Qaidalinked Jaish-e-Mohammed. The official listing by the U.N. sanctions committee said the 50-year-old Azhar was associated with al-Qaida by supporting its activities including by supplying arms and recruiting members, and for financially supporting Jaish-e-Mohammed after he was released from prison in India in 1999 in exchange for 155 passengers on an Indian Airlines flight hijacked to Kandahar, Afghanistan.