Beijing: India on Wednesday hit out at China for demanding "solid evidence" for getting JeM chief Masood Azhar banned by the UN, saying the extent of his actions were "well-documented" and the "burden of proof" was not on it.
"On the issue of 1267 Committee's sanctions on Masood Azhar, we again explained the rationale for that application and pointed out that this was really pursued by other countries, not by India alone," Jaishankar said, referring to the US' application backed by the UK and France this year to designate Azhar as a global terrorist.
On the Chinese Foreign Ministry calling for "solid evidence" to get Azhar banned, Jaishankar said, "in the case of Azhar, Jaish itself is proscribed under 1267. So the proof is in (the) 1267 Committee action. In this case what he has done, extent of his actions are well-documented."
"Also the proposal in question this time is not moved by us. It is not that the burden of proof is on India to convince. The sponsors seem to be very well convinced, otherwise they would not have taken the initiative to move the proposal," he said.
About China saying that there is no consensus on the issue, the Foreign Secretary said, "there is no consensus because China has not joined it".
China on February 17 said "solid evidence" was needed for it to back efforts to get JeM chief Masood Azhar banned by the UN.
"China upholds principles of objectivity, impartiality and professionalism and takes part in relevant discussions. Whether last year's application by India or this year's by (the) relevant country, our position is consistent," said Geng Shuang, Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesperson.
"Our criteria is only one, we need solid evidence. If there is solid evidence the application can be approved. If there is no solid evidence there is hardly consensus," he said.
China last year put a technical hold twice on India's application to get Azhar banned by the UN.
(With agency inputs)
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