Enough evidence is available on Azhar and the terror infrastructure in Pakistan which can be independently verifiable, the sources pointed out

NEW DELHI: India will not try to cut any deal with China or any other country to list Jaish-e-Mohammed chief Masood Azhar as a global terrorist by the UN Security Council, government sources said. New Delhi will, instead, work on further strengthening its case against Azhar and his sponsors through various global forums.

Enough evidence is available on Azhar and the terror infrastructure in Pakistan which can be independently verifiable, sources pointed out. The government is ready for a long haul and will continue with its endeavours through UN and other international bodies to act against the Pakistan based terrorist, the sources said.

The government, as part of this process, will step up engagement with the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) ahead of its next meeting in mid-2019 to put Pakistan to task for failing to control terror funding, ET has learnt.

The FATF, at its last plenary in February in Paris, stated that Pakistan had not done enough to curb the finances of terror groups like the JeM and Lashkar-e-Taiba. This means Pakistan continues to be on what is called the FATF 'grey list', making it hard for the country to get international loans. Pakistan has until May 2019 to complete its action plan to control terror finances. If the administration of Prime Minister Imran Khan did not meet the targets by October, it could be blacklisted.

Besides the FATF, India will also step up pressure on Pakistan through the BRICS bloc where China is a member. The first BRICS Sherpa meeting under the Presidency of Brazil was held in Curitiba, Brazil, during March 14-15 and it identified counter-terrorism as one of the priority areas for the five-member grouping. Brazil has also identified countering terrorism as one of its priority areas for BRICS under its presidency.

India conveyed its support for the priority areas set out by Brasilia, particularly to take forward BRICS cooperation on counter terrorism in a meaningful and concrete manner with member countries, senior officials said.

Meanwhile, the Wall Street Journal, in an editorial piece titled 'China Shields a Jihadist - Beijing blocks a UN attempt to sanction the Kashmir killer', said without meaningful global action against jihadist enclaves in Pakistan, India may "understandably conclude it has few options other than a military escalation".