New Delhi: Amid the global outrage over the attack on the CRPF convoy in Pulwama, China continues to dismiss India’s demands to list JeM chief Masood Azhar as a UN designated terrorist.
The Chinese media has now advised India to work on redrafting its anti-terrorism policy rather than blaming Pakistan without evidence for last week’s Pulwama attack.
The state media in its editorial said that India has failed to provide “solid evidence” against Azhar and China has rightly practiced caution against listing him as a terrorist.
It advised “quiet diplomacy” on India’s part to “better address” the Azhar issue.
The opinion published in Global Times, affiliated to China’s ruling Communist Party’s People’s Daily, comes days after reports surfaced that India and US were working on another resolution to the UN Security Council for a ban on Azhar.
The terrorist who was freed in exchange of passengers during Kandahar hijacking, is considered to be the mastermind of Pathankot airbase attack and continues to operate freely in Pakistan despite his group being outlawed in 2002.
At least 40 soldiers were killed in Pulwama last week. Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM), proscribed as terror group since 2002 by the UN, took responsibility of the attack.
Even in the past, China has repeatedly scuttled India’s persistent demands of branding Azhar a global terrorist, a tag that would bring with it a global travel ban and an assets freeze.
The article added that China has reason to cautiously handle the issue. “Observers worry that blacklisting Azhar could be used by India to increase its military pressure on Pakistan, thus risking exacerbating tensions between the two countries,” added the piece.
The opinion also dismissed India’s allegations that by refusing to take action against Azhar in the UN, China was supporting terrorism.
“Citing China’s refusal to support the bid to have Azhar blacklisted by the UN, India in recent years has aggressively blamed China for allying with Pakistan in shielding terrorists. It disregards the fact that as a victim of terrorism itself, China has pledged to support the international community’s anti-terrorism efforts and stands ready to work with India and all other countries to fight terrorism,” the article said.
The article did agree that some Chinese scholars think that “China take India’s concerns more into account” on Azhar, advising quiet diplomacy to resolve the issue.
In a condolence message to external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj on last Friday, Chinese state councillor and foreign minister Wang Yi had said that he was "shocked to learn that a suicide attack was carried out in Kashmir and heavy casualties were caused".
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