China Surprises India as It Defends Pak-Based Militant Chief at UN

Sputnik News

17:30 30.12.2016

Despite promising joint efforts to weed out terrorism from the region, China has backed Pakistan at the UN to prevent Jaish-e-Mohammed Chief Masood Azhar being designated a terrorist.

New Delhi (Sputnik) – India has expressed concern over China's block on an Indian request at the UN to designate Pakistan based group Jaish-e-Mohammed chief Masood Azhar as terrorist. India blames the JeM for innumerable terrorist attacks on India including the Pathankot air base attack.

"The inability of the international community to list its leader Masood Azhar is an unfortunate blow to the concerted efforts to effectively counter all forms of terrorism, and confirms prevalence of double standards in the fight against terrorism," read a statement released by Ministry of External Affairs.

Since April this year, China has blocked India's request to add Azhar to the UN Al Qaeda-Daesh blacklist on a temporary basis. Beijing has wielded its veto which means India could not push forward the proposal further to designate Masood Azhar a terrorist. It may be noted that UNSC has blacklisted Jaish-e-Mohammed but not its leader, Maulana Masood Azhar.

However, India says that it will continue pursue the naming of Masood Azhar through all other options available under UN rules.

India and China had held talks on the issue of Masood Azhar several times but failed to reach a consensus while Beijing keeps telling India that there should be no double standards on counter-terrorism, nor should one pursue own political gains in the name of counter-terrorism

© Sputnik