New Delhi, May 3 (IANS): Additional "factual" evidence provided to the UN Security Council (UNSC) lately ensured lifting of ‘technical hold by China on sanctioning of Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) chief Masood Azhar and the decision was "obviously" linked to the Pulwama attack as the process was initiated after that, diplomatic sources said here on Friday.
The additional information was provided to the UNSC's 1267 Sanctions Committee collectively by "some countries" along with India, which "convinced, not only China, but the whole world community", they said about the May 1 decision to list Azhar, a Pakistani national, as a global terrorist.
China had been blocking the move for over 10 years and even after the February 14 Pulwama attack, it retained its 'technical hold' when the proposal came up for consideration in the Sanctions Committee in March.
The sources said the process to list Azhar as a global terrorist was initiated after the Pulwama attack but refused to go into details as to why the terror attack did not find a mention in the Resolution of the Sanctions Committee.
"The link to Pulwama is pretty obvious since the process (to proscribe Azhar) was started after this terror attack," the sources underlined while talking about the UNSC Resolution.
The fresh process to ban Azhar stemmed out of a strong statement issued by the UNSC condemning the Pulwama attack and calling for action against the perpetrators of the crime, they said.
The process was initiated by France and was joined by the US and UK, which also strongly pushed for sanctioning of Azhar.
"Additional information" linking Azhar directly with JeM, a terror outfit which already stood banned by the UNSC, was provided to the Sanctions Committee post-March meeting after which his listing as a global terrorist became possible, the sources said while answering questions on what made China change its stand.
The "factual evidence", which was additional to that furnished earlier, was provided to the Committee collectively by "some countries", they said but refused to identify them.
Earlier, the evidence was not provided collectively by the countries pushing for a ban on Azhar but after the March meeting of the Sanctions Committee, "sufficient" and "more factual" evidence was furnished to it, the sources said.
They noted that "everybody knows" who Masood Azhar is but only sufficient evidence was required to be reinforced, inking him directly to JeM which was already banned.
They expressed gladness that Pakistan, which primarily has to implement the UNSC Resolution since Azhar is based there, was reportedly "satisfied" with the decision.
On questions how the ban could be implemented since Pakistan has never enforced a similar ban imposed in 2008 on Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) terror outfit chief Hafiz Saeed who continues to roam freely, the sources said the assets of such people have to be confiscated by the UN member countries and their travel barred.