This is the fourth attempt to put Masood Azhar, leader of Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM), on the UN terror blacklist, which would subject him to a global travel ban and assets freeze.
Washington, February 28:
France, UK and the US launched a fresh bid Wednesday to name Masood Azhar, the founder of Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Mohammed that carried out the Pulwama attack and others, as a UN-designated terrorist, as calls mounted for India and Pakistan to de-escalate tensions and exercise restraint.
The United States, separately, called for restraint by both India and Pakistan in view of the Pakistani retaliatory action in response to an Indian airstrike on a Jaish training camp in Balakot, Pakistan. But it also told Pakistan, keeping the focus on terrorism, to abide by its UN “commitments to deny terrorists safe haven and block their access to funds”.
France leads the new, and fourth, attempt to put Azhar on a UN blacklist that already includes the outfit he founded after his release by India in 1999 in exchange for passengers of an Indian Airlines flight hijacked by five people including one who would go on to run Jaish’s Balakot camp hit by India on Tuesday.
Courtesy: Hindustan Times
