China’s continuous blocking the move to designate Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Mohammad chief Masood Azhar a global terrorist by the United Nation will not deter India from fighting terrorism, the Ministry of External Affairs said on Friday.
“I think the decision by a country to block a consensus should not be seen as an end to our counter-terrorism efforts,” MEA spokesperson Raveesh Kumar said. “What is important is that it does not, in any way, take away our resolve to fight terrorism.”
Kumar said New Delhi will continue to work with other countries who want to combat terrorism.
On Thursday, for the fourth time, China blocked an attempt by the United States, France and the United Kingdom to add Azhar’s name to the United Nations’ list because “there was no consensus”. Azhar’s Jaish-e-Mohammed is already on the UN’s list of banned terror outfits.
In August, China had extended its technical hold on the proposal to list Azhar as a global terrorist by three months.
Azhar was identified as the mastermind of the 2016 attack on the Indian Air Force base in Pathankot. India has maintained that Azhar and the Jaish-e-Mohammed also played a key role in the attack the Indian Army’s Uri base in Jammu and Kashmir in September 2016.
Azhar is also wanted by India for his involvement in the Parliament attack case and the bomb blast at the Srinagar Assembly in 2001. India had released him after an Indian Airlines flight was hijacked in Afghanistan’s Kandahar in 1999. Azhar and two other militants were freed in exchange for passengers and crew who were being held hostage by the hijackers.
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