France freezes assets of chief JeM Masood Azhar

Paris, Mar 15: A day after China blocked the UNSC resolution to declare Masood Azhar as a global terrorist, France has decided to freeze the assets of Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) founder and leader Masood Azhar, the French government said on Friday.

A joint statement issued by the French interior ministry, finance ministry and foreign ministry has said that it would discuss putting Masood Azhar on a European Union list of people involved in terroris.m.

"We will raise this issue with our European partners with a view to including Masood Azhar on the European Union list of persons, groups and entities involved in terrorist acts, based on this decree," Reuters quoted France statement.

The proposal to designate Azhar under the 1267 al-Qaeda Sanctions Committee of the Security Council was moved by France, the UK and the US on February 27, days after a Jaish suicide bomber killed 40 CRPF soldiers in Jammu and Kashmir's Pulwama, leading to a flare-up in tensions between India and Pakistan.

Other than Pulwama, Azhar-led JeM has been involved in several terror attacks in India over nearly two decades.

It was responsible for the attack on Indian Parliament on December 13, 2001 in which nine security personnel and officials were killed.

In January, 2016, a heavily armed group of JeM attacked the Pathankot airbase in which seven security personnel were killed. The terror group also carried out the attack on Uri brigade headquarters in September 2016, killing 17 soldiers and injuring 30 others.