HIGHLIGHTS
-- The United Nations Security Council (UNSC) on Wednesday designated him as global terrorist
-- Masood Azhar is a Pakistani terrorist responsible for some of the worst attacks on India in recent years
India's long wait for a United Nations ban on Maulana Masood Azhar, the Pakistani leader of the terrorist group Jaish-e-Mohammed, has finallt ended.
The decision came a day after highly placed sources had told India Today TV that Jaish-e-Mohammad chief Masood Azhar will be "designated" a global terrorist by the UNSC 1267 Al-Qaeda Sanctions Committee with China lifting its hold, placed of March 13, on the move sponsored by US, UK and France.
China has repeatedly blocked sanctions on Masood Azhar, 50. China had said on Tuesday that the issue of Azhar's listing as a global terrorist would be "properly resolved".
"I can only say that I believe that this will be properly resolved."
- Geng Shuang, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman
The blacklisting of the man responsible for some of the worst terrorist attacks on India in recent years is a significant diplomatic victory for New Delhi -- one that comes bang in the middle of a general election.
DEADLY ATTACKS
The son of a retired schoolteacher, Masood Azhar was arrested in south Kashmir in 1994 but released with two others in 1999, in exchange for passengers aboard a hijacked Indian Airlines plane.
Azhar then founded Jaish-e-Mohammed, a terrorist group responsible for a number of major attacks on Indian soil, including the suicide bombing that killed dozens of Indian paramilitary personnel in February this year.
The military escalation between India and Pakistan that followed brought the two nuclear-armed rivals to the brink of war.
The US, the UK and France asked the UN Security Council’s Islamic State and al-Qaeda sanctions committee to blacklist Masood Azhar, but China thwarted the effort.