UNITED NATIONS/NEW DELHI (Reuters) - China prevented a U.N. Security Council committee on Wednesday from blacklisting the head of Pakistan-based militant group Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM), which said it attacked an Indian paramilitary convoy in disputed Kashmir.
The United States, Britain and France asked the Security Council’s Islamic State and al Qaeda sanctions committee to subject JeM founder Masood Azhar to an arms embargo, travel ban and asset freeze. The 15-member committee operates by consensus.
China placed a “technical hold” on the request, according to a note from its U.N. mission to the committee, seen by Reuters. China gave no reason for the hold, which places the request in limbo.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kang said on Thursday that the Security Council has specific procedures for naming a person or organization on the terror list.
In a statement late on Wednesday, India’s Ministry of External Affairs vowed to pursue “all available avenues to ensure that terrorist leaders who are involved in heinous attacks on our citizens are brought to justice”.
Many social media users urged Indians to boycott Chinese products, with hashtags China and BoycottChineseProducts the top trends on Twitter India.
“There is really no moral rationale for blocking this proposal (on Azhar),” Anand Mahindra, chairman of the Mahindra Group conglomerate, said on Twitter.
In December 2001, an attack on India’s parliament by the group’s fighters and those of another Pakistan-based militant group, Lashkar-e-Taiba, nearly triggered a fourth war between the neighbors.
Azhar founded JeM in 2000 after a hostage exchange that freed him from an Indian prison in return for 155 people held on a hijacked aircraft.
Pakistani authorities have linked JeM with two assassination bids on former President Pervez Musharraf in 2003 as well as the kidnap and murder of U.S. journalist Daniel Pearl in 2002.