India's bid to ban JeM chief Masood Azhar 'politically motivated', says Pakistan

Islamabad: Pakistan on Sunday said India’s bid at the UN to ban Masood Azhar was “politically motivated” and “replete with frivolous information”, two days after its close ally China blocked the proposal to get the JeM chief and Pathankot attack mastermind listed as a global terrorist.

Responding to reports on India failing to put Azhar on the United Nations Security Council’s 1267 Sanctions Committee, Foreign Office spokesperson Nafees Zakaria said, “The 1267 Sanctions Committee related to ISIS/Al-Qaeda has rejected a politically motivated proposal by India. Replete with frivolous information and baseless allegations, the Indian proposal had no merit and was primarily aimed at advancing its narrow national agenda.

“The dismissal of this proposal is also a rejection of the Indian attempts to politicise and undermine the work of this important Committee of the Security Council,” he said.

“While claiming to denounce terrorism, India has in fact deployed terrorism as an instrument of state policy, and has itself been involved in perpetrating, sponsoring, supporting, and financing terrorism,” Zakaria said in a statement.

“The arrest of Kulbhushan Jadhav, a RAW agent and serving officer of Indian navy, and his confession about involvement in terrorist activities aimed at destabilising Pakistan and killing or maiming of Pakistani citizens, is yet another proof of Indian sponsored terrorism in Pakistan.”

“With such duplicitous behaviour and blood on its hands”, India has little credibility on counter-terrorism, he claimed. The spokesperson said that in the coming days, Pakistan will share with the United Nations and members of the international community “additional evidence of Indian involvement in terrorism in Pakistan”.

“It is clear that India’s unfounded allegations against Pakistan are in fact aimed at masking its own terrorist activities in Pakistan, as well as diverting the attention of the international community from the grave violations of human rights and state sponsored terrorism perpetrated by the Indian occupying forces in Kashmir,” the statement said.

“Pakistan has made significant contribution and rendered enormous sacrifices in the success of the international community’s counter-terrorism efforts. We are deeply committed to this common cause and look forward to continuing close cooperation with the international community in this collective endeavour,” the statement said.

China had blocked India’s proposal to get Pakistan-based Azhar listed as global terrorist by the UN, citing lack of “consensus” on the issue.

In last nine months, China has twice put technical hold on listing Azhar as designated terrorist that would have forced imposition of asset freeze and travel ban on him by countries including Pakistan.