Pak begins New Year on sour note, says India's bid to ban JeM chief 'politically motivated'

Islamabad [Pakistan], Jan. 1 (ANI): Pakistan on Sunday criticised India for seeking a ban on Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) chief Masood Azhar at the United Nations, calling the bid as politically motivated. In response to queries regarding India's failure to put Azhar on the United Nations Security Council's 1267 Sanctions Committee, Foreign Office spokesperson Nafees Zakaria said in a statement, "The 1267 Sanctions Committee related to ISIS/Al-Qaeda has rejected a politically motivated proposal by India. Replete with frivolous information and baseless allegations, the Indian proposal had no merit and was primarily aimed at advancing its narrow national agenda." The statement added that dismissal of this proposal is also a rejection of India's attempts to politicize and undermine the work of this important Committee of the Security Council. The statement also blamed India for deploying terrorism as an instrument of state policy, adding that Pakistan has been a direct victim of such state sponsored terrorism. The spokesperson said the arrest of Kulbhushan Jadhav, an alleged RAW agent and serving officer of Indian Navy, and his "confession about involvement in terrorist activities aimed at destabilizing Pakistan is proof of Indian sponsored terrorism in Pakistan." He claimed that Islamabad will share with the United Nations and members of the international community additional evidence of India's involvement in terrorism in Pakistan. India has accused JeM and its top leader Maulana Masood Azhar of masterminding several attacks including a deadly assault on an Indian Air Base in January last year and sought the UN to put him on the list of designated terrorist under the 1267 Sanctions Committee of the UN Security Council . JeM has already been blacklisted by the 15-nation Security Council, but not Azhar. However, China for the third time since March last year blocked the move last week with its "technical hold". (ANI)