China has blocked India’s request to add the head of the Jaish-e-Mohammad to a U.N. Security Council blacklist of groups linked to Al-Qaeda, India said on Friday.
India has accused Jaish-e-Mohammad and its top leader, Maulana Masood Azhar, of masterminding several attacks, including the Pathankot attack in January 2016.
Pakistani security officials interrogated Azhar and his associates after the attack, and said they found no evidence linking him to it.
India’s foreign ministry spokesman Vikas Swarup said that India had requested that Azhar be added to the list nine months ago and had received strong backing from all other members of the council.
But China, which put a hold on the move in April, had now blocked it, he said.
“We had expected China would have been more understanding of the danger posed to all by terrorism,” he said in a statement.
China’s foreign ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment late on Friday evening.
If Azhar was blacklisted by the U.N. Security Council, he would face a global travel ban and asset freeze.
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