United Nations Security Council (UNSC) issued a resolution condemning Pulwama attack in Kashmir, reports Hindustan Times on February 22. The resolution also named terrorist organisation Jaish e Mohammed (JeM). The resolution stated that ‘The members of the Security Council condemned in the strongest terms the heinous and cowardly suicide bombing in Jammu and Kashmir, which resulted in over 40 Indian paramilitary forces dead and dozens wounded on February 14, 2019, for which Jaish-e-Mohammed has claimed responsibility’. The resolution reportedly bolsters India’s efforts to mount pressure on and isolate Pakistan in the aftermath of the attack.
However, the Chinese UN representative pushed for three changes during negotiations this week – deletion of the reference to JeM, changing “Jammu and Kashmir” to “Indian-administered Kashmir”. Beijing also wanted to change the paragraph that “underlined the need to hold perpetrators, organisers, financiers and sponsors of these reprehensible acts of terrorism accountable and bring them to justice, and urged all States, in accordance with their obligations under international law and relevant Security Council resolutions, to cooperate actively with the Government of India and all other relevant authorities in this regard. Since 2016, China has acted at the behest of Pakistan and repeatedly blocked efforts by India, France, the UK and the US to sanction JeM leader Masood Azhar under Resolution 1267 for links to al-Qaeda.