India plans to raise the issue of designating Jaish-e-Muhammad (JeM) chief Masood Azhar as a terrorist at the UN Security Council (UNSC). This comes a week after China blocked India’s move citing lack of “solid evidence”.

This comes a day after the Chinese Foreign Ministry said that the decision to put a hold on it was “just, objective and professional” and it’s up to the 1,267 Sanctions Committee of the UNSC to come to an agreement on the issue.

The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) plans to lobby with other countries such as the UK, the US and France to garner support for its application. India is also going to play up the fact that JeM is already blacklisted by the UN for its alleged links with Al-Qaeda, according to sources.

Sources also said India was going to follow a time-frame to renew its application to designate Azhar as a global terrorist.

China was the only country out of the 14-member countries that decided not to designate Azhar as a terrorist on December 30, citing disagreements among members over the issue and lack of evidence. Azhar is the alleged mastermind of the Pathankot air force base attack that took place in January last year, followed by Uri and Nagrota.

Azhar is also responsible for the Parliament terror attacks of 2001. This is not the first time China has blocked India’s application. It has done so several times before. China has proved to be an obstacle while taking action against other terrorists such as Hafiz Saeed and Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi.

Fighting terror

Minister of State for External Affairs MJ Akbar had said China should hear the “voice of the world” and should not indulge in Pakistan’s “doubles standards” over the issue of fighting terror which is “self defeating and suicidal.” China, meanwhile, has refuted these claims and said it has only stood by the UN rules.

“It is out of the responsible attitude that China will continue to stay in communication with all relevant parties including India in accordance with the Security Council resolution and rules of the procedures of the committee,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said.

Geng also said he understands that both China and India are victims of terror and share the same goal on the issue of counter-terrorism and enhancement of security cooperation.

According to Nandan Unnikrishnan, Vice-President at the Observer Research Foundation, a leading think tank, “India should continue to lobby with other countries but it should equally focus on engaging with China bilaterally and see what exactly are the procedural issues they are referring to. And if India thinks they are unreasonable then it should be brought in front of the world.”

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