New York: Masood Azhar, chief of Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) was on Wednesday declared as a global terrorist by the UN Security Council.
"Masood Azhar designated as a terrorist in @UN Sanctions list," India's Permanent Representative to the UN Syed Akbaruddin tweeted.
A proposal to declare Azhar as an international terrorist was taken by the UNSC Sanctions Committee 1267, nearly three months after the JeM carried out a ghastly terror attack on CRPF convoy in Pulwama district of Kashmir.
Earlier, the proposal was being blocked by China, which lifted its "technical hold" on Wednesday.
The action will mean that Azhar's assets will be frozen by the UN member countries and his travel will be barred in these nations.
"It (defending Azhar) was increasingly becoming untenable for the Chinese," said an Indian government official on condition of anonymity.
Azhar, a Pakistani national, founded the JeM in January 2000, soon after his release from an Indian jail in exchange for 166 hostages of an Indian Airlines plane which was hijacked to Kandahar in Afghanistan during a flight from Kathmandu to New Delhi.
Since then, the outfit has carried out umpteen terror attacks in India, including the one on Parliament on December 13, 2001.
The latest outrageous action by the outfit was in Pulwama on February 14, when a suicide bomber of JeM rammed his explosive-laden vehicle into a CRPF convoy on Srinagar-Jammu National Highway, killing 40 security personnel.
