Pakistan issues order to freeze assets of Masood Azhar, impose travel ban

Azhar is also banned from selling or purchasing arms and ammunition

Pakistan has issued an official order to freeze the assets and impose travel ban on Jaish-e-Mohammed chief Masood Azhar after the United Nations declared him a “global terrorist”.

In a notification issued Wednesday, the foreign ministry said, “the Federal Government is pleased to order that the Resolution 2368 (2017) be fully implemented” against Masood Azhar. The government directed officials to take actions “as appropriate for the implementation of sanctions” against the JeM chief, according to the notification.

Azhar is also banned from selling or purchasing arms and ammunition. In a major diplomatic win for India, the United Nations designated Pakistan-based Azhar as a “global terrorist” after China lifted its hold on a proposal by the US, the UK and France to blacklist him.

The US, the UK and France had moved the proposal to designate Azhar as a “global terrorist” in the UN Security Council’s 1267 Al Qaeda Sanctions Committee in February, just days after the deadly Pulwama terror attack carried out by the JeM in Jammu and Kashmir. Pakistan foreign office spokesman Mohammad Faisal on Wednesday said that Pakistan would “immediately enforce the sanctions” imposed on Azhar.

Adityanath calls Army ‘Modiji ki sena’, Oppn up in arms; EC seeks report

Priyanka Chaturvedi attacked Yogi for “christening” the Indian army as “Modi’s army” and demanded his apology

Current Affairs: Despite clear directions from the Election Commission of India (ECI), Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh (UP) Yogi Adityanath’s blatant invocation of the armed forces whom he called ‘Modiji ki sena’ in pursuit of votes in the run-up to the first phase of general elections in the state scheduled for April 11, has the Opposition up in arms.

On Sunday, in a rally in Ghaziabad the CM referred to the armed forces repeatedly to draw a contrast with “Congress ke log. “Congress people would serve biryani to terrorists. Modiji’s sena only gives them goli and gola. Congress people use “ji” for terrorists like Masood Azhar but under the leadership of PM Modi, the BJP government is breaking the backs of terrorists by striking their camps,” said the chief minister, adding: “What was namumkin (impossible) for the Congress is mumkin (possible) for PM Modi. Because when Modi is there, the impossible becomes possible.”

Mamata Banerjee, the Chief Minister of Bengal, said it was “shocking” that her UP counterpart should have used such words for the army. “It is shocking to hear the UP CM saying that the Indian Army is the ‘Modi Sena’. Such blatant personalization and usurping of our beloved Indian army is an insult and a humiliation,” said the Trinamool leader. Congress leader Priyanka Chaturvedi attacked Yogi Adityanath for “christening” the Indian army as “Modi’s army” and demanded his apology.

“This is an insult to our armed forces. They are India’s Armed Forces not the private army of Prachaar Mantri. Adityanath must apologise,” the Congress leader tweeted. “If we talk about Masood Azahar, then how can one forge the stellar role of NSA (Ajit) Doval who personally ensured the safe return of the terrorist to terroristan,” she asked, recalling the return of the terrorist in exchange for those hijacked in IC 814.

Weak Modi’s scared of Xi: Rahul slams PM after China shields Masood Azhar

India’s bid to designate the Pakistan-based terror group Jaish-e-Mohammed’s chief as a global terrorist suffered a setback with China on Wednesday putting a technical hold on the proposal at UN

Politics News: As China again blocked a UN resolution to designate JeM chief a global terrorist, Congress president Rahul Gandhi Thursday hit out at Prime Minster Narendra Modi, saying he was weak and scared of Chinese President Xi Jinping. The Congress chief attacked the prime minister and said he had not spoken on China blocking the resolution in the UN Security Council.

The party accused the BJP of letting Masood off the hook again and also questioned Modi what was the use of “swinging” with Xi. “Weak Modi is scared of Xi. Not a word comes out of his mouth when China acts against India. NoMo’s China diplomacy: 1. Swing with Xi in Gujarat. 2. Hug Xi in Delhi. 3. Bow to Xi in China,” Gandhi said on Twitter.

India’s bid to designate the Pakistan-based terror group Jaish-e-Mohammed’s chief as a global terrorist suffered a setback with China on Wednesday putting a technical hold on a proposal to ban him following the Pulwama terror attack.

The proposal to designate Azhar under the 1267 Al Qaeda Sanctions Committee of the UNSC was moved by France, the UK and the US on February 27, days after a suicide bomber of the JeM killed 44 CRPF soldiers in Jammu and Kashmir’s Pulwama, leading to a flare-up in tensions between India and Pakistan.

“With China having blocked our bid to designate Masood Azhar a global terrorist, the question on every Indian’s mind is, what was the use of all the swinging with Modi and President Xi,” the Congress said on its official Twitter handle. “A terrorist responsible for such bloody murders is let off the hook again by the BJP,” it claimed.

China blocks UN action against Masood Azhar; India expresses disappointment

External Affairs Ministry said India will continue to pursue all available avenues to ensure that leaders of terror groups involved in heinous attacks on Indian citizens are brought to justice

India Wednesday expressed disappointment soon after China blocked yet another move at the United Nations to designate Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Mohammed’s chief Masood Azhar as a “global terrorist”.

In its reaction, the External Affairs Ministry said India will continue to pursue all available avenues to ensure that leaders of terror groups involved in heinous attacks on Indian citizens are brought to justice.

“We are disappointed by this outcome. This has prevented action by the international community to designate the leader of Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM), a proscribed and active terrorist organization which has claimed responsibility for the terrorist attack in Jammu and Kashmir on February 14,” the MEA said.

Without naming China, it said the UN’s 1267 Sanctions Committee was not able to come to a decision on the proposal for listing Azhar on account of a member placing the proposal on hold. The JeM had claimed responsibility for the Pulwama attacks in which 40 CRPF personnel were killed. In yet another setback to India’s bid to designate Azhar as a global terrorist, China put a technical hold on the proposal in the UN Security Council to ban him. A diplomat at the UN told PTI that China put a “technical hold”.

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Will JeM’s Azhar be designated as global terrorist? UNSC to decide today

The proposal to designate Azhar under the 1267 Al Qaeda Sanctions Committee of the UN Security Council was moved by France, UK and the US on February 27

The fate of the proposal to designate Pakistan-based terror group Jaish-e-Mohammed’s chief Masood Azhar as a global terrorist by the UN Security Council will be known in less than 24 hours when the deadline to raise objections to the bid expires.

The proposal to designate Masood Azhar under the 1267 Al Qaeda Sanctions Committee of the UN Security Council was moved by France, UK and the US on February 27.It was under the no-objection period and Committee members had a period of 10 working days to raise any objections to the proposal.  The no-objection period deadline ends 3 pm Wednesday (12:30am IST). The Committee makes its decisions by consensus of its members. All eyes are on China, which has in the past blocked India’s bids to get Azhar listed as a UN-designated global terrorist.

According to the listing rules of the Al Qaeda Sanctions Committee, if no objection is received by the end of the no-objection period, the decision will be deemed adopted, meaning that Azhar will become a UN-designated global terrorist. The proposal is the fourth such bid at the UN in the last 10 years to list Azhar as a global terrorist.

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