BRICS naming Pak-based LeT, Jaish may force China to act firm against Masood

Xiamen, Sep 4: Sustained Indian campaign on the terror front and especially Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Mohamad (JeM) today yielded results when for the first time the BRICS Summit hosted by none other than China named groups like the Haqqani network, Lashkar-e-Taiba and JeM. The 9th BRICS Summit attended among others by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Chinese President Xi Jinping and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin adopted a declaration: "We express concern on the security situation in the region and violence caused by the Taliban, ISIL/DAISH, Al-Qaida and its affiliates including Eastern Turkistan Islamic Movement, Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan, the Haqqani network, Lashkar-e-Taiba, Jaish-e-Mohammad, TTP and Hizb ut-Tahrir". This certainly gives a shot in the arm of India's long standing stance for a concerted global efforts to fight terror menace and especially identify groups operating from Pakistan. For Indian diplomats and the foreign policy engine room, the Xiamen Declaration yet again exposes Pakistan in yet another global forum -- importantly that also includes China -- which has been stalling Indian efforts to ensure that the UN Security Council Sanctions Committee 1267 initiate action against the Jaish chief Maulana Masood Azhar. Earlier this year on June 9, India made entry into the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) with the Prime Minister Narendra Modi taking a dig at Pakistan on terror front and has said that the rejuvenated Eurasian forum should make coordinated efforts to fight terrorism including radicalisation, recruitment and financing of terrorists. "I have full confidence that India-SCO cooperation will give the fight against terrorism a new direction and new prowess)," Mr Modi has said at Astana in the presence of heads of nation of SCO heads including Chinese President as well as his Pakistan counterpart Nawaz Sharif. Notably, days later on June 27, 2017, in a clearer message and in quite a diplomatic setback to Islamabad, India and the United States had vowed to strike at the Islamic terrorism and the "safe heavens" and also urged Pakistan to expeditiously bring to justice perpetrators of terror attacks like 26/11 and Pathankot. "The leaders (PM Modi and President Trump) called on Pakistan to ensure that its territory was not used to launch terrorist attacks on other countries," the Joint statement has said. The Xiamen Declaration today in clear terms "deplored all terrorist attacks worldwide, including attacks in BRICS countries, and condemn terrorism in all its forms and manifestations wherever committed and by whomsoever and stress that there can be no justification whatsoever for any act of terrorism." The Declaration and special reference to Pakistan-based groups is seen as endorsement of Prime Minister Modi's stand taken few years back when he said there can be no justification to terrorism -- either political or religious. Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) is said to have created Jaish-e-Mohammed by working with several Deobandi terrorist groups. Interestingly the 'UN-designated terror group founded by Masood Azhar in banned in Pakistan since 2002, but in 2016, Jaish was suspected of being responsible for attack on the Pathankot airbase in Punjab. While the Indian Government had accused Pakistan of assisting Jaish-e-Mohammad, Islamabad has denied the charge. But in view of Xiamen Declaration, sources in the ruling BJP and a section of strategic experts in India suggest now China would find it difficult to stall actions against Masood Azhar. China has stalled India's bid for action against Masood Azhar last year on technical hold. Beijing also has opposed another this resolution this year brought by the US, UK and France. However, it remains to be seen on how things span out vis-a-vis China's stand. It can be mentioned that renewing its call to the world to not differentiate between good and bad terrorists, India in March this year had told the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) that there should be any differentiation between bad terrorists and good terrorists and that all terror groups must be treated “like terrorist organisations and their activities (should be) universally opposed”. “The Taliban, the Haqqani Network, al-Qaeda, Daesh (another name for Islamic State), Lashkar-e-Toiba, Jaish-e-Mohammad, and others of their ilk are all terror organisations, many of them proscribed by UN,” Syed Akbaruddin, Indian permanent representative to United Nations, had said in a statement at UNSC discussion on the security situation in Afghanistan. UNI