China has for the fourth time put on hold a proposal at the United Nations to designate Jaish-e- Muhammed (JeM) chief Masood Azhar as a global terrorist.
The proposal against Azhar was initiated by France and backed by the United Kingdom and United States.
Moreover, countries like Australia, Bangladesh, Germany, Poland, Italy, Japan and Belgium also supported the move.
However, ignoring the mutual stand of all these nations around the world, China has blocked the proposal. This came after China had earlier blocked the same proposal in 2011, 2016 and 2017.
In the wake of the horrific incident of Pulwama terror attack that occurred last month, the move of China has greatly disappointed the Indian government.
The Ministry of External Affairs said, “We are disappointed by this outcome. This has prevented action by the international community to designate the leader of Jaish-e-Muhammed (JeM), a proscribed and active terrorist organization which has claimed responsibility for the terrorist attack in Jammu and Kashmir on 14 February 2019.”
The government said it was grateful for the efforts of the member states who moved the designation proposal and the unprecedented number of all security council members as well as non-members who joined as co-sponsors. “We will continue to pursue all available avenues to ensure that terrorist leaders who are involved in heinous attacks on our citizens are brought to justice,” the ministry mentioned in a statement
China is the only United Nations Security Council (UNSC) member who refused to support the proposal. Earlier, the entire UNSC had in a statement condemned the Pulwama terror strike and held Jaish reponsible for it.
As per reports, Azhar founded JeM in 1999 and financially supported the terrorist outfit. He is also a former leader of the terrorist group Harakat-ul-Mujahidin, aka Harakat-ul-Ansar
Also, it was found that in the year 2008, JeM recruitment posters contained a call from Azhar for volunteers to join the fight in Afghanistan against western forces.