One consequence of the great error India may have committed in bowing to the demands of those who hijacked IC 814 to Kandahar back in 1999 was the release of Masood Azhar, who went on to build the deadly jihadi group Jaish-e-Mohammed. The group, with proven ties to the Taliban and Al Qaeda, operates with pan-national objectives in PoK, Pakistan and Afghanistan, even as the cause it most espouses is the “liberation” of Kashmir from India. Azhar’s freedom, after being arrested at least twice by Pakistan, including recently after the Pathankot airbase attack, allows him to be the motive force of a militant group that today threatens the free world.
The US has equated Jaish with other global threats from Pakistan like LeT, D-Company and the Haqqani network. Pakistan’s two-faced approach to terror has allowed organisations like Jaish to flourish. India has conveyed to China its strong disapproval of the country using its veto power to block a UN resolution against Jaish’s ideologue-leader Masood Azhar. External affairs minister Sushma Swaraj used a meeting in Moscow to bring up the subject.
Its current relationship dynamics shaped by the ambitious connectivity project through the port of Gwadar on the Arabian Sea, China’s Pakistan tilt is too well known for India to believe China would see reason straightaway. Beijing has obviously been prompted by Pakistan to take such action in UNSC. What effect pleas on how terrorism needs to be fought with a commonality of purpose will have on the Chinese remains to be seen. India has at least been assured that a dialogue window is open on a terror mastermind.
