New Delhi
China remains the only outlier in bringing Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) chief Masood Azhar to book after the other four permanent members of the UN Security Council sought reckoning for the perpetrators of the Pulwama attack.

The Chinese Foreign Office sought to deflect suggestions about letting go its lock on the UNSC listing Azhar as a global terrorist after JeM took responsibility for the attack.

Having refrained from raising Azhar’s indictment at the UNSC as an international terrorist all through last year, India has renewed its appeal to all members of the UN Security Council to list Azhar as a global terrorist.

Russian President Vladimir Putin was categorical in asking that the perpetrators and sponsors of this attack, undoubtedly, “should be duly punished”, while the US State Department called on all countries to “uphold their responsibilities pursuant to UNSC’s resolutions to deny safe haven and support for terrorists”. Two other UNSC permanent members, France and the UK, spoke on similar lines, leaving China as the sole country among the UNSC Big Five to drag its feet on the issue.

China did condemn the Pulwama terror attack but avoided pointing fingers at Pakistan. “We hope relevant regional countries will cooperate to cope with the threat of terrorism and jointly uphold regional peace and stability,” said its Foreign Office. On the trickier issue of indicting Azhar at the UNSC, China admitted that his organisation does figure in the terrorism sanctions list but said it would “continue to handle the relevant sanctions issue in a constructive and responsible manner”.