ISLAMABAD – China on Wednesday put on hold a request by Britain, France andthe United States to add to the UN terror blacklist the leader of aPakistan-based Islamist group behind a suicide attack in Kashmir, diplomatssaid.
It was the third time that the UN Security Council was considering arequest to put Masood Azhar, leader of Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM), on the UNsanctions blacklist, which would subject him to a global travel ban andassets freeze.
Jaish-e-Mohammad has claimed responsibility for the February 14 attack inKashmir that killed 40 Indian troops.
China has twice blocked — in 2016 and 2017 — attempts to impose sanctionson the JeM leader. The group itself was added to the terror list in 2001.
In a note sent to the council, China said it needed more time to examinethe sanctions request targeting Masood Azhar, diplomats said.
India and Pakistan carried out air raids last month across their disputedKashmir frontier in clashes that sent tensions soaring between thenuclear-armed countries.
India on February 26 staged an air raid on a camp inside Pakistan that itsaid belonged to JeM. One day later Pakistan responded with fighter jetscrossing into Indian-administered Kashmir.
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A pilot who was shot down over Pakistani territory was later sent back toIndia.
Islamabad announced last week that more than 100 militants, including manyfrom JeM, had been detained, but India has greeted those statements withsuspicion.
Pakistan’s Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi also recently denied in atelevision interview that JeM had claimed responsibility for the suicideattack.
Kashmir has been split between India and Pakistan since their independenceand angry division in 1947.
India has long accused its neighbor of supporting Kashmir rebels. Pakistandenies any role in attacks in the Indian side of the Himalayan region wheretens of thousands have died in an armed insurgency since 1989. APP/AFP
