New Delhi: China has refused to list Pakistan-based Jaish commander Abdul Rauf Azhar as a terrorist at the United Nations Security Council (UNSC), effectively taking the issue out of the council’s purview. Now, only a new resolution can bring back the listing of Rauf Azhar on the Security Council agenda.
Last year, a resolution was moved by India, co-sponsored by the US, to list Abdul Rauf Azhar in the UN Security Council 1267 Sanctions Committee. However, China had put a technical hold on the proposal.
Azhar, the deputy chief of terror group Jaish-e-Mohammed and the younger brother of its founder Masood Azhar, is known for his involvement in several terrorist attacks, including the hijacking of an Indian Airlines plane in 1999, the attack on the Indian Parliament. in 2001, and an attack on an Indian Air Force base in 2016. He is one of the most wanted men in India.
This is not the first time that China – an all-weather friend of Pakistan – has obstructed or blocked the list of terrorists in the 1267 Sanctions Committee. These actions have been seen by Beijing as a form of politicization of the sanctions regime.
Last year, Indian Foreign Minister S Jaishankar criticized China for obstructing the listing of a Pakistan-based terrorist group by the UN Security Council.
Jaishankar stressed the need for the Security Council to deliver a clear and forceful message and stressed that political views should not be used to evade responsibility or enable impunity. Without directly mentioning China, he highlighted that the Security Council has failed to ban some of the world’s most notorious terrorists because of such political considerations.