China blocks Indian proposal to blacklist Jaish-e Mohammed terrorist Abdul Rauf Azhar at UN

United Nations: China has objected to a proposal by India to blacklist senior Pakistan-based terrorist Abdul Rauf Azhar at the United Nations Security Council.

It is learnt that China objected to the proposal from India to add the leader of the Pakistan-based terror organisation Jaish-e Mohammed (JeM) to the UN Security Council’s 1267 ISIL and Al Qaida Sanctions list.

Rauf Azhar, born in 1974 in Pakistan, had been sanctioned by the US in December 2010.

In August last year, China put a hold on the proposal by India and the US to designate Rauf Azhar as a global terrorist and subject him to an assets freeze, travel ban and arms embargo.

The US Department of Treasury had in December 2010 designated “Abdul Rauf Azhar, a senior leader of Jaish-e Mohammed (JeM), for acting for or on behalf of JEM".

The US said that as a senior leader of JeM, Abdul Rauf Azhar “has urged Pakistanis to engage in militant activities. He served as JEM's acting leader in 2007, as one of JEM's most senior commanders in India, and as JEM's intelligence coordinator. In 2008 Azhar was assigned to organise suicide attacks in India. He was also involved with JeM's political wing and has served as a JeM official involved with training camps”.

Earlier also, China, an all-weather friend of Islamabad, has placed holds and blocks on bids by India and its allies to list Pakistan-based terrorists.

In May 2019, India had won a huge diplomatic win at the UN when the global body designated Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Mohammed chief Masood Azhar as a "global terrorist”, a decade after New Delhi had first approached the world body on the issue.

A veto-wielding permanent member of the UN Security Council, China was the sole hold-out in the 15-nation body on the bid to blacklist Azhar, blocking attempts by placing a "technical hold". All decisions of the committee are taken through consensus.

Last year, China put holds on proposals to blacklist Pakistan-based terrorists Hafiz Talah Saeed, Lashkar-e-Taiba leader Shahid Mahmood, and Lashkar-e-Tayyiba terrorist Sajid Mir under the Al Qaeda Sanctions regime.