Jaish-e-Mohammed chief Masood Azhar. | File image

United Nations: In a major jolt to peace and counter-terrorism operations in the Indian sub-continent, China on Wednesday blocked India's bid to designate Jaish-e-Mohammed terror chief Masood Azhar as a 'global terrorist' for the fourth time. China put a technical hold on a proposal in the UN Security Council to ban him just before the close of the deadline, news agency PTI reported.

Masood Azhar, terrorist and Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) founder, has been on the radar of countries, counter-terrorism organisations and the United Nations for the slew of terror attacks on the Indian sub-continent.

India had listed Azhar as a 'most-wanted terrorist' and has been trying for the past two decades at the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) to declare him a 'global terrorist' and add his name to the counter-terrorism sanctions list, a decision supported by all member countries except China. China had blocked the move at least thrice before.

The Ministry of External Affairs has expressed its disappointment in the outcome and said it will continue to pursue “all possible avenues to ensure terrorist leaders are brought to justice”.

The proposal to designate Azhar under the 1267 Al Qaeda Sanctions Committee of the UNSC was moved by France, Britain and the US on February 27 after India and Pakistan went into major offensive following the Pulwama attack.

Read MEA's full statement here:

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 14 February 2019.

The 1267 Sanctions Committee, upon completion of the no-objection period on 13 March 2019, wasn’t able to come to a decision on the proposal for listing Mohammed Masood Azhar under the United Nations Sanctions regime, on account of a member placing the proposal on hold.

We are grateful for the efforts of the Member States who moved the designation proposal and the unprecedented number of all other Security Council members as well as non-members who joined as co-sponsors.

We will continue to pursue all available avenues to ensure that terrorist leaders who are involved in heinous attacks on our citizens are brought to justice.

China has perpetually turned a blind eye to the terrorism originating from Pakistan, be it by the Hafiz Saeed-founded Lashkar-e-Taiba or the JeM. Even though all countries in the world condemned the dastardly Pulwama attack that killed 40 CRPF jawans in February this year, China has maintained a diplomatic silence over the demand to call Azhar a 'global terrorist' even after the JeM claimed responsibility for the attack.

Masood Azhar, JeM Chief UNSC Listing As Global Terrorist Latest Updates: