China drops objection, UN designates Masood Azhar as global terrorist

China had earlier blocked Masood Azhar's listing under the 1267 Al Qaeda Sanctions Committee of the Council.

Masood Azhar heads Pakistan-based terror outfit Jaish-e-Mohammed which was responsible for Pulwama terror attack that claimed 40 soldiers in February.

"Big, small, all join together. Masood Azhar designated as a terrorist in @UN Sanctions list Grateful to all for their support," tweeted Syed Akbaruddin, India's permanent envoy to the UN.

The designation of Azhar as global terrorist by UN's Security Council means all his assets and finances will be frozen.

Besides India, the US, UK and France had also put pressure on China to change its stand.

These countries had recently pushed a fresh proposal on the matter.

The move is likely to benefit Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the ongoing general elections as well since he had pitched that his government has a zero tolerance policy towards terrorism.

Last week, foreign secretary Vijay Gokhale, who was in China, provided the country's administration with more evidence on the Jaish's role in terror attacks in India.

On Tuesday, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang told media that his country made positive progress to resolve the issue of listing Masood Azhar and that it will be properly solved.