UNSC condemns Pulwama attack, names JeM

The United Nations Security Council (UNSC) has unanimously condemned the recent killing of over 40 Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) at Pulwama in Jammu and Kashmir, noting that the terror organization Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) claimed responsibility for the attack.

The resolution was unanimously adopted by all – five permanent and 10 non-permanent – UNSC members, including China, which previously blocked several attempts by India to bring the JeM’s chief Masood Azhar under international sanctions. It, however, does not mention Azhar, who lives free at Bahawalpur in Pakistan.

“The members of the Security Council condemned in the strongest terms the heinous and cowardly suicide bombing in Jammu and Kashmir, which resulted in over 40 Indian paramilitary forces dead and dozens wounded on February 14, 2019, for which Jaish-e-Mohammed has claimed responsibility,” the UN said in a press-release issued in New York.

The JeM has been under UN sanctions – asset freeze, arms embargo and travel restrictions – since 2011. But China, a permanent member of the UNSC, has been blocking attempts to impose sanctions on its chief, Masood Azhar, ostensibly to save its “all-weather friend” Pakistan from embarrassment.

New Delhi is likely to use the UNSC resolution to step up pressure on Pakistan to act against the JeM, which had carried out not only the February 14 suicide attack on the CRPF convoy at Pulwama in Jammu and Kashmir but had also orchestrated in the past several such strikes in India, including the January 2016 attack on Indian Air Force base at Pathankot in Punjab.

The UNSC underlined the need to hold perpetrators, organizers, financiers and sponsors of these reprehensible acts of terrorism accountable and bring them to justice. It also urged all nations, in accordance with their obligations under international law and relevant Security Council resolutions, to cooperate actively with the Government of India and all other relevant authorities in this regard (in order to bring the perpetrators of the attack to justice).

Sources in New Delhi said that the resolution contained specific language that India had proposed through friendly nations among the members of the UNSC. New Delhi had insisted on mentioning that the JeM had claimed the responsibility for the attack as well as on underlining the need to bring perpetrators to justice.

The UNSC reaffirmed that “terrorism in all its forms and manifestations” constituted one of the most serious threats to international peace and security. It reiterated that any acts of terrorism were “criminal and unjustifiable, regardless of their motivation, wherever, whenever and by whomsoever committed”. It reaffirmed the need for all States to combat by all means, in accordance with the Charter of the United Nations and other obligations under international law, including international human rights law, international refugee law and international humanitarian law, threats to international peace and security caused by terrorist acts.