The UN Security Council has named Jaish-e-Mohammed, the terrorist organization which has claimed responsibility for the Pulwama attack, in the statement released in condemnation. The UNSC, the most powerful body of intergovernmental organization consists of 15 countries with 5 permanent members and 10 non-permanent members. China, the all-weather ally of Pakistan is a permanent member of the UNSC and therefore it can be concluded that it supported the naming of Jaish-e-Mohammed in the statement released to condemn the Pulwama attack.
The UNSC underlined the need to hold perpetrators, organizers, financiers and sponsors of these reprehensible acts of terrorism accountable and bring them to justice.
Other key highlights of UNSC statement on #Pulwama. #TimetoAct pic.twitter.com/4auIIfp6N6
— Raveesh Kumar (@MEAIndia) February 22, 2019
“The members of the Security Council condemned in the strongest terms the heinous and cowardly suicide bombing in Jammu and Kashmir, which resulted in over 40 Indian paramilitary forces dead and dozens wounded on February 14, 2019, for which Jaish-e-Mohammed has claimed responsibility,” read the UNSC press release on ‘Suicide Bombing in Jammu and Kashmir. Jaish-e-Mohammed, an organization founded and led by the dreaded terrorist Maulana Masood Azhar is responsible for many attacks in Kashmir and many other parts of India. JeM was found to be involved in the Parliament attack in 2001, the Uri and Pathankot attack in 2016, and the Pulwama attack in 2019. It is designated as a terrorist organization by India, UK, US, Russia, UAE, and United Nations.
The UNSC press statement also advised Pakistan to cooperate with Indian government to bring the perpetrators of the attack to justice in a subtle way. “The members of the Security Council underlined the need to hold perpetrators, organisers, financiers and sponsors of these reprehensible acts of terrorism accountable and bring them to justice, and urged all States, in accordance with their obligations under international law and relevant Security Council resolutions, to cooperate actively with the Government of India and all other relevant authorities in this regard,” said the statement released by the UN.
France is expected to move a resolution in the UN’s Sanctions Committee to ban Masood Azhar as a global terrorist. This is the fourth time that a resolution to be move in the UNSC was designated to Azhar, the founder and mastermind of terrorist attacks against India to designate as global terrorist. The bid was supported by 3 nations — the US, the UK and France in 2016. But the resolution was vetoed by China, a permanent Security Council member and Pakistan’s all weather ally.
Masood Azhar, the most powerful enemy of India was born in Pakistan. He was trained in Islamic school named Jamia Uloom-ul-Islamia. The Islamic school based in Karachi has many of the topmost terrorists such as Mullah Omar – the founding leader of Taliban, Asim Umar- leader of Al-Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent in its alumni list. He entered Kashmir with a Portuguese passport in the early 1990s when militancy was on rise in the valley. Soon he became a popular figure in the streets of Srinagar, known for making fiery speeches and his role as mediator between various terrorist groups. “His greatest value for the militant groups was as a motivator and recruiter, but more significantly he displayed a good capacity to reconcile their differences,” said an official.
He was detained and put in jail by Indian authorities in 1994. However, the Indian government freed him in 1999 in exchange for the safety of passengers on an Indian Airlines flight from Katmandu to New Delhi which was hijacked on Christmas Eve in 1999. Ajit Doval, the National Security Advisor of the Modi government was the person who negotiated the deal with the terrorists. After that, Azhar founded JeM which became a household name in the valley eventually. It is the most popular terrorist organization in Kashmir and the most dreaded by the Indian government. The Indian government has paid the price of releasing Azhar with the death of hundreds of soldiers and civilians. Azhar has ties with Al Qaeda and Taliban but Pakistan and China do not want him to be designated as a global terrorist. India on the other hand is paying the price for a mistake it made two decades ago by releasing Azhar.
