China considering India's proposal to ban Masood Azhar

NEW DELHI: China will soon take a call on India's demand to designate JeM chief Masood Azhar as global terrorist by the UN as it is investigating his terror activities, a senior functionary of Communist Party of China said today.

Speaking at a security conference here, Ma Xiangwu said China was considering India's proposal on Azhar as well as various other aspects of the matter like whether supporting the move may land it in a bigger problem.

"We are considering it... We will take a decision on it soon," he said, asserting that all forms of terror must be eliminated.

Last month, India had hit out at China for demanding "solid evidence" for getting Azhar banned by the UN, saying the extent of his actions were "well-documented" and the "burden of proof" was not on it.

China had put a technical hold twice last year when India moved an application to ban Azhar after the Pathankot terrorist attack. Beijing again repeated its action this year when the US moved the application at the UN.

He said while examining India's proposal, China was investigating Azhar's activities.

Ma said there are "differing explanations" of terrorism worldwide based on the perceptions of individual nation states.

"There are two classifications of terrorism in the world. global terrorism and regional terrorism," he said, adding China was also facing the challenge of combating terror.

He said the current state of the anti-terror action in China is complex and difficult to understand and that the situation in China is severe, but well controlled.

"Nevertheless countering terrorism remains a long drawn process," he said.

According to Ma, China is economically and militarily powerful and, therefore, can tackle terrorism using both means.

Addressing the conference organised by leading think-tank Institute for Defence Studies and Analysis, former Commander of Sri Lankan Army Daya Ratnayake said innovation and adaptive techniques can be used to counter terrorism effectively.

"The defeat of terrorism in Sri Lanka serves as an example of how counter insurgency and counter terrorism can be successful," he said.