Pak 'mischievously' attempting to divert narrative: Official sources on Azhar listing

India's objective of getting JeM chief Masood Azhar designated as a global terrorist has been achieved, official sources said Wednesday, asserting that Pakistan is "mischievously" attempting to divert the narrative and salvage something out of this diplomatic setback.

The assertion came after Pakistan on Wednesday said it agreed to Azhar's listing after all "political references", including attempts to link him to the Pulwama attack, were removed from the proposal.

Sources here said Pakistan is "mischievously" attempting to salvage something out of this huge diplomatic setback for them by diverting the narrative.

In a huge diplomatic victory for India, the UN Sanctions Committee on Wednesday designated Azhar as a global terrorist after China lifted its hold on a proposal to ban him.

Pulwama happened to be the latest act of terror, however the designation was not based on a specific incident but on the basis of evidence shared with members of the 1267 Sanctions Committee linking Azhar to terrorism, the sources said.

It is not supposed to be a biodata of a terrorist that all acts of terror committed by him would be listed in the notification, they said.

However, all acts of terrorism, including Pulwama, were relevant to the lifting, they said.

The process of listing started in 2009. Since then, several efforts have been made to list Azhar and this was much before the Pulwama terror attack took place.

The UN committee listed Azhar on Wednesday as being associated with Al-Qaeda for "participating in financing, planning, facilitating, preparing, or perpetrating of acts or activities by, in conjunction with, under the name of, on behalf of, or in support of, "supplying, selling or transferring arms and related material to", "recruiting for, "otherwise supporting acts or activities of", and "other acts or activities indicating association with" JeM.

This broadly covers all terror activities he has been involved in, the sources said.