By Tenzin Dharpo
DHARAMSHALA, April 2: India’s attempt to list Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) terror outfit chief and Pathankot terror attack mastermind Maulana Masood Azhar on a United Nations list of illicit terrorists was blocked by China for the second time. The Chinese Permanent Mission at the UN intervened just hours before the deadline Yesterday (April 1) to put the bid on “technical hold”.
Indian Ministry of External Affairs office in Washington spokesperson Vikas Swarup, in a strong worded statement, said that China is exercising “selective approach to combating terrorism” and called the methods by China based on “unanimity and anonymity” to be “incomprehensible”.
“This does not reflect well on the determination that the international community needs to display to decisively defeat the menace of terrorism,” the MEA statement added.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Le, in response, said that the move was necessitated on the grounds of being “just and objective”. “We always deal with the listing issue (outlawing militant groups and their leaders) under the UN Security Council committee established under resolution 1267 based on facts and relevant rules of procedures in an objective and just manner,” Hong said.
Indian intelligence pit Azhar as the mastermind behind the attack on the Indian Air Force base in Pathankot on Jan. 2 which resulted in 80 hours of armed confrontation and the death of four terrorist and seven Indian security personnel. The subsequent request to list him in the UN sanctions list was accompanied with evidence of the terror outfit JeM’s involvement.
India’s push to list Azhar earlier in 2008 after the Mumbai terror attacks was also vetoed out by China, as was the request to take action against Pakistan for releasing Mumbai terror attack mastermind Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi last July. The moves by China, many say, came after consulting Pakistan which on many occasions has been accused by India of harboring and even sanctioning state sponsored militants across Indian borders.
Maulana Masood Azhar was one of the three terrorists released in exchange for passengers on the hijacked Indian Airlines Flight 814 (IC814) that had taken off from Kathmandu and landed in Taliban controlled Kandahar, Afghanistan, in December 1999.
