UNSC action to blacklist Masood Azhar offers Pakistan an excellent opportunity to act on terror | The Indian Express

UNSC action to blacklist Masood Azhar offers Pakistan an excellent opportunity to act on terror | The Indian Express

Written by Ram Madhav |Updated: May 7, 2019 11:31:51 am

The writer is national general secretary, BJP, and director, India Foundation.

UNSC action to blacklist Masood Azhar offers Pakistan an excellent opportunity to act on terror

Credit for Azhar's listing as a global terrorist goes to the Narendra Modi government. If Pakistan wishes to overcome this isolation and ignominy, it has to join the world community in the fight against terror.

The Masood Azhar matter before the Security Council was 10 years old. India had first approached the UNSC in 2009 demanding the listing of Masood Azhar in the 1267 Resolution. (Illustration: C R Sasikumar)

It was a significant victory for the Indian political and diplomatic establishment when the Sanctions Committee of the UN Security Council finally succeeded in declaring dreaded Pakistani terrorist, Masood Azhar, a “Global Terrorist”. With this decision, Azhar has joined notorious company. Several attempts were made in the past to get the Security Council to so designate Azhar but every time, it was our neighbour China which blocked those efforts. It did so by deceptively imposing what is called a “technical hold”.