Will China declare Kashmir attack group leader a terrorist? Everyone else has
- Four out of five permanent members of UN Security Council back India’s call for head of Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Mohammad to face sanctions
- Beijing silent on whether it will continue to block Masood Azhar’s terrorist listing on technical grounds
China is becoming increasingly isolated in its refusal to list as a terrorist the founder of the Pakistan-based organisation responsible for the suicide bombing in Kashmir on February 14.
The US, Britain, France and Russia on Wednesday backed India’s long-standing call for the UN Security Council’s sanctions committee to blacklist Masood Azhar, leader of Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM), a move which would subject him to an arms embargo, global travel ban and asset freeze.
The latest push to have Azhar blacklisted as a terrorist follows a rapid escalation in tensions between Pakistan and India in the wake of the JeM attack in Kashmir, with both Delhi and Islamabad ordering air strikes – the first time two nuclear-armed powers have done so – while ground forces exchanged fire in more than a dozen locations.
Pakistan’s Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi confirmed on Friday that Azhar was in Pakistan, adding in an interview with CNN that the JeM leader was unwell and unable to leave his house.
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Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Lu Kang did not say in his regular press briefing on Thursday whether China would support the move to sanction Azhar, which it has repeatedly blocked since 2017 on technical grounds, citing a lack of consensus among the 1267 committee, as it is known.