The United States on Wednesday circulated a draft resolution to the UN Security Council that would blacklist the leader of a Pakistan-based Islamist group as a terrorist, setting up a potential clash with China over the move.

China earlier this month put on hold a request to put Masood Azhar, leader of Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) on the UN sanctions list, over his alleged ties to Al-Qaeda.

That request stalled in a UN sanctions committee, prompting the United States to turn directly to the Security Council with the proposed resolution blacklisting Azhar.

Jaish-e-Mohammad has claimed responsibility for the February 14 attack in Kashmir that killed 40 Indian troops and stoked tensions between India and Pakistan.

The draft resolution obtained by AFP condemns the suicide bombing and decides that Azhar will be added to the UN Al-Qaeda and Islamic State sanctions blacklist.

That would subject Azhar, considered the founder of JeM, to a global travel ban, an assets freeze and an arms embargo.

It remained unclear when a vote would be held on the draft resolution, which could face a veto from China, one of the five permanent council members along with Britain, France, Russia and the United States.

There have been four attempts through a UN sanctions committee to add Azhar to the blacklist. China blocked three previous requests and put a technical hold on the latest one, which could last up to nine months.

JeM itself has been on the UN terror list since 2001.

– Terrorist activities –

Azhar is linked to terrorism for "participating in the financing, planning, facilitating, preparing, or perpetrating of acts or activities" carried out by JeM, according to an annex to the draft.

The draft resolution is backed by France and Britain, which joined the United States earlier this month in pushing for sanctions against Azhar in the Al-Qaeda and Islamic State committee.

China has been accused by Western diplomats of protecting Pakistan's interests in the latest standoff with India.

But Beijing has defended its decision by arguing it had adopted a "responsible attitude" in dealing "with this issue with relevant parties via thorough consultation," foreign ministry spokesman Lu Kang said.

The Chinese mission to the United Nations did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Tensions between India and Pakistan have soared since last month's attack in Kashmir that prompted tit-for-tat air raids, fueling fears of an all-out conflict between the two nuclear-armed countries.

Pakistan has denied any role in the Pulwama attack, and Prime Minister Imran Khan offered cooperation in the investigation if credible evidence was provided by India.

Kashmir has been divided between India and Pakistan since the end of British colonial rule in 1947.

Both claim the Himalayan territory in full and have fought two wars over it.

Pompeo blasts China 'shameful hypocrisy' on Muslims
Washington (AFP) March 27, 2019 –

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Wednesday denounced China's "shameful hypocrisy" over its treatment of Muslims as he met a former prisoner and relatives who recounted abuses as part of Beijing's widespread detention of its Uighur minority.

"China must release all those arbitrarily detained and end its repression," Pompeo tweeted.

"The world cannot afford China's shameful hypocrisy toward Muslims. On one hand, China abuses more than a million Muslims at home, but on the other it protects violent Islamic terrorist groups from sanctions at the UN," he said.

Pompeo was referring to China's efforts at the United Nations to prevent the blacklisting of Islamist extremist Masood Azhar, based in Beijing ally Pakistan. Azhar's group Jaish-e-Mohammad claimed responsibility over a deadly attack last month on Indian troops in Kashmir that triggered military skirmishes.

The top US diplomat met Tuesday with Mihrigul Tursun, a Uighur who has spoken publicly in the United States about what she said was widespread torture in China's prisons for the minority group.

She has said she was separated from her children and detained in a cramped cell with 60 other women, suffering electrocution and beatings during round-the-clock interrogations.

The State Department said that Pompeo also met with three other Uighurs whose relatives are held by China, which according to a UN report has detained a massive one million Uighurs as it seeks forcibly to integrate the minority group.

Pompeo, speaking to reporters on Tuesday, said that "certainly" at least hundreds of thousands of Uighurs had been detained.

"We're working to convince the Chinese that this practice is abhorrent and ought to be stopped," Pompeo said.

According to the State Department as well as international human rights groups, China has confiscated Korans from Uighurs and forced them to drink alcohol and eat pork, which are forbidden by Islam.

"It's one of the most serious human rights problems in the world today," State Department official Michael Kozak said of the Uighurs' detention as he presented the latest annual human rights report.

China denies the accounts of mass detention, saying it is running educational training centers as part of a fight against Islamic extremism in the northwestern region of Xinjiang.