The United Nations Security Council's sanctions committee has not received any petition from Pakistan-based Jamaat-ud-Dawa, a front for Lashkar-e-Tayiba, to reconsider the decision declaring it as a terrorist group, a top official said on Thursday. Reports from Pakistan had said that the JUD is appealing the decision but Coordinator of Al Qaeda and Taliban Sanctions Monitoring Committee Richard Barrett said no such petition has been received.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said that Washington's move only complicates the issue.
India will continue to work with like-minded countries to fight terrorism, the MEA spokesperson said.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi has taken up with Chinese leadership India's concerns over China blocking its move in the UN for action against Pakistan over release of 26/11 mastermind and LeT commander Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi in violation of a resolution of the world body.
Banks have raised concerns over the new international trade settlement in rupee, fearing that facilitation of such a mechanism could result in them facing the ire of economic sanctions by the West, people aware of the matter said. Large banks with overseas operations have sought clarity and assurance from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) that they will not be targeted with sanctions for facilitating rupee trade with a sanction-hit country such as Russia. The present payment mechanism is a shift from earlier such arrangements, like the one with sanction-hit Iran, which involved banks facilitating settlement of international trade that did not have business in the sanctioned nation.
China has blocked India's move in the UN demanding action against Pakistan over the release of Mumbai attack mastermind and LeT commander Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi in violation of a resolution of the world body as it contended that India provided insufficient information.
India handed over a dossier to Pakistan to take action against the JeM, as pressure mounted on Islamabad to take action against individual and organisation listed by the UN Security Council as terrorists.
China, a veto-wielding member of the UNSC, has blocked the move by India and other member nations three times in the past to designate Azhar.
China was the sole member in the 15-nation UN organ to put a hold on India's application with the rest 14 members of the Council supporting New Delhi's bid to place Azhar on the 1267 sanctions list that would subject him to an assets freeze and travel ban.
The diplomat spoke on condition of anonymity to give a sense of the feeling of other members of the Security Council after China blocked the move to designate Azhar a global terrorist. Beijing previously put a technical hold on similar proposals at the UNSC thrice.
The UN decision came after India provided detailed evidence about Saeed's activities.
India has hit out at China for blocking a move to designate Pakistan-based LeT leader Sajid Mir as a "global terrorist" by the UN, saying it shows a lack of genuine political will to fight the scourge of terrorism.
While a giant, it's a nimble-footed one, and is growing at a speed that even some of its private sector peers find enviable.
Between FY18 and FY24, it doubled its balance sheet. Despite being a late entrant in some segments, it has been able to grab market share, observes Tamal Bandyopadhyay.
After the attack on the Indian Air Force base at Pathankot on January 2, India in February wrote to the UN calling for immediate action to list Azhar under the Al Qaeda Sanctions Committee.
Hafiz Abdul Salam Bhuttavi, an United Nations-designated terrorist who trained the Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) attackers for the 2008 Mumbai terror attack and acted as the outfit's chief on at least two occasions, died in a prison in Pakistan's Punjab province while serving a sentence for terror financing, his aide said on Wednesday.
The reality is that far from being friendless, India is better positioned in the world than at any point post-Cold War, asserts Shekhar Gupta.
Pakistan today said India's bid at the UN to ban Masood Azhar was "politically motivated" and "replete with frivolous information", two days after its close ally China blocked the proposal to get the JeM chief and Pathankot attack mastermind listed as a global terrorist.
India is planning to ask Pakistan to seize assets of fugitive underworld don Dawood Ibrahim and most wanted terrorists Hafiz Saeed and Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi as all three are in the United Nations Security Council's Al Qaeda sanctions list which makes it incumbent upon Islamabad to freeze their holdings.
China said it took the decision after it found no objection to the listing proposal by the United States, the United Kingdom and France following a careful study of the revised materials
'The touchstone is reciprocity which will be applied to friends and foes alike.' 'It will be a bitter pill to swallow.'
The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party on Thursday took a major step to implement its key plank of "one nation, one election" as the Union Cabinet headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi approved the constitutional amendment bill to roll out the concept of simultaneous Lok Sabha and state assembly polls, sources said.
He said despite efforts by the UN, the threat of terrorism is only growing and expanding, particularly in Asia and Africa.
China on Thursday blocked another bid by the United States, France and the United Kingdom to list Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Mohammed chief and Pathankot terror attack mastermind Masood Azhar as a global terrorist by the United Nations, saying it has rejected the move as "there is no consensus".
The US on Tuesday designated Maulana Fazlullah, the chief of Pakistani Taliban, as a global terrorist and slapped sanction against him.
The government has not set up any committee to probe allegations a US short seller labelled against the Adani Group, but stock market regulator SEBI is investigating market allegations against the group, the Lok Sabha was informed on Monday. A separate investigation into imports of Indonesian coal by the conglomerate hasn't reached finality, Minister of State for Finance Pankaj Chaudhary said. Lok Sabha saw several questions being put by MPs to the government on the Adani issue, which were replied through written responses by the minister.
The ballistic missile launch was the first by Iran since Trump became President.
The sources said Modi's pre-recorded video statement is expected to be broadcast at the UN General Assembly hall in New York around 9 am local time (6.30 pm IST) and added that he is scheduled as the first speaker in the forenoon.
Rauf Azhar, born in 1974 in Pakistan, had been sanctioned by the United States in December 2010.
He said there was a tradition in the country to speak in one voice on issues such as external affairs and national security but there has been a departure from it in the last few years.
China's ruling Communist Party has appointed Wang Junzheng, sanctioned by the US, Britain, EU and Canada for his alleged role in the human rights violations against Uygur Muslims in Xinjiang, as the head of its party unit in the sensitive Himalayan region of Tibet.
India on Friday said that it is disappointed that a technical hold has been put on its application to designate Jaish-e-Mohammad chief Masood Azhar, the mastermind of the Pathankot terror attack, in the United Nations Committee.
He said China understands India's concerns over the issue.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Congress leaders Sonia Gandhi and Mallikarjun Kharge were among the top leaders who paid homage to former prime minister Manmohan Singh at his home in New Delhi on Friday.
A change in the name of the Al Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent (AQIS) magazine 'suggests a refocusing' of the terror group from Afghanistan to Kashmir, a United Nations report has said.
The Chinese technical hold was set to lapse on Monday, and had China not raised further objection, the resolution designating Azhar as a terrorist could stand passed automatically. The hold has been extended for another six months.
A United Nations Security Council panel has issued a 'revised' letter removing the term 'sahib' from the name of Mumbai terror attack mastermind and JuD chief Hafiz Saeed, saying it regrets the mistake after India objected to the use of the salutation.
"The friendship between China and Pakistan appears to be very strong but the day is not far when China too gets affected by Pakistan-backed terrorism," Singh, who is in Gorakhpur to take part in a function at the Gorakhnath temple, told media persons on Monday night.
The bill now heads to the White House for President Donald Trump's approval.
'We are at the moment working with India to encourage India to hold accountable, those responsible for this terrible crime'
If China would not have extended the technical hold, Azhar would have automatically been designated under the UN as a terrorist.
