NEW DELHI, Apr 6:
India has taken up with China, the issue of the country vetoing a move by UNSC to declare Pakistan-based Jaishe-e-Mohammad chief Masood Azhar as terrorist, Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar said here today.
India considers Masood Azhar as the mastermind behind the Pathakot terror attack of January 2, which claimed the life of seven security personnel.
”We have taken it up with China at a fairly high level, and we will pursue it in the UN context,” Mr Jaishankar said here, while answering a question after his remarks at the launch of The India Centre of Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.
The Foreign Secretary, however, said the issue would not affect the engagement between the two countries in other areas. India had approached the UN in February to include Azhar in the UN Security Council’s 1267 sanctions list, but China, which has by rotation taken up the chairmanship of the UNSC, asked the Body to hold the move.
It later justified its action, arguing that the JeM chief did not qualify the definition of a terrorist. New Delhi had earlier expressed great disappointment over the Chinese action. ”We are disappointed that a technical hold has been put on India’s application to designate terror leader Mohamad Masood Azhar in the UN Security Council,” the Ministry of External Affairs had said in statement last week.
The MEA said it found it incomprehensible that while the Pakistan-based JeM was listed in UN Security Council Committee established under UNSCR 1267/1989/2253 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 on January 2 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,” the statement had said (UNI)
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