Groups of traders on Tuesday burned goods made in China to protest against Beijing’s decision to block the United Nations Security Council’s proposal to designate Jaish-e-Mohammed chief Masood Azhar a “global terrorist”, PTI reported, quoting a statement from the Confederation of All Indian Traders.

The traders’ organisation demanded that the government impose restrictions on Chinese goods because it had “waged a back-door war against Indian interests”.

On March 13, China thwarted the United Nations Security Council’s move against Azhar for the fourth time. The terror outfit had claimed responsibility for the February 14 Pulwama attack in Jammu and Kashmir in which 40 security personnel were killed. If accepted, the sanctions would have subjected Azhar to an assets freeze, travel ban and an arms embargo.

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The organisation threatened to boycott Chinese goods in retaliation. “Traders are the ‘chowkidar’ [watchman] of Indian economy, thus the trade from China will not flourish here any more,” Praveen Khandelwal, the organisation’s secretary general, said. “Whoever stands against the national security of India, the traders will boycott the goods of that country.”

The organisation said thousands of traders participated in the demonstration. The protestors held placards urging consumers to boycott Chinese goods and shouted slogans against China. They threatened to remove China from its largest market, India, if it does not stop helping Pakistan, which “sponsors terror activities in India”.

China is a permanent member of the Security Council. It had previously prevented the Security Council’s Islamic State and Al Qaeda sanctions committee from sanctioning Azhar in 2016 and 2017. On February 15, a day after the Pulwama attack, China had refused to back India’s appeal at the UN to designate Azhar a global terrorist.