India 'disappointed' with China's stand on JeM chief

Beijing has linked its decision to support or oppose New Delhi’s bid to get United Nations’ sanctions on terrorist leader Moulana Masood Azhar with the outcome of the probe by Pakistan into his role in the Pathankot airbase attack. 

Disappointed by China’s stand at a United Nations Security Council panel to block India’s latest move to get international sanctions on Jaish-e-Mohammed chief, New Delhi raised its concern with Beijing at “a very high level”. 

“My sense is that the particular issue that you referred to is something we have taken up with the Chinese. We have taken it up at a sort of very high level and we will continue to pursue this,” Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar said at an event to mark the launch of India Chapter of Carnegie Endowment for International Peace on Wednesday. 

He was replying to a question on India’s reaction to China’s recent move to block the bid to get Azhar designated by the UNSC panel as an individual linked to international terror networks and put him under sanctions. 

The foreign secretary’s remark came on a day a senior official of a state-run think-tank of China said here that Beijing had not “vetoed”, but had just sought some clarifications on New Delhi’s plea to get UNSC designate Azhar as a terrorist. 

 A report in a newspaper published in Islamabad on Tuesday claimed that the investigators had concluded that the attack was stage-managed by New Delhi to malign Pakistan.

Beijing, an “all-weather friend” of Islamabad, earlier blocked several attempts by New Delhi to get UN sanctions imposed on Azhar and other terrorist leaders based in Pakistan.  

“This is an issue to be pursued with the Chinese in a UN context. I would not like to give the impression that somehow this is going to overflow into other areas (of India-China relations). We have had a back and forth discussion with them on this issue. We have to wait and see where this goes,” said the foreign secretary.