Maulana Masood Azhar. PTI file photo
As BRICS expressed concern over violence caused by Pakistan-based terror outfits, Congress on Monday asked Prime Minister Narendra Modi to seize the opportunity and take up with China the issue of designating Maulana Masood Azhar as an “international terrorist”.
Congress welcomed the BRICS declaration adopted at the summit meeting of the leaders of the five emerging economies in Xiamen in China expressing concern over the violence caused by the Taliban, ISIS, al-Qaeda, Haqqani network, Lashkar-e-Taiba, Jaish-e-Mohhamad among others.
“It is a welcome start and I think it needs to be taken forward,” Randeep Singh Surjewala, in-charge of the AICC Communications Department, told reporters here.
He said the prime minister should take up with China the issue of declaring Jaish-e-Mohammad leader Maulana Masood Azhar as an international terrorist.
India's efforts at the United Nations Security Council to declare Azhar as an 'international terrorist have been vetoed by China.
“China does not have the moral right or the legal right now to stand in the way or to prevent the United Nations from declaring him as an 'International Terrorist',” Surjewala said.
The Congress also attacked the Modi government for the deaths of 49 infants at a hospital in Farrukhabad allegedly due to lack of oxygen.
Congress mocked Prime Minister's assurances at the BRICS summit in China that India was working in mission mode to eradicate poverty, ensure the health, sanitation and gender equality.
“It is over three years now, Prime Minister needs to travel from rhetoric to reality. The reality is that 49 children have died in Farrukhabad, 357 children have died in Gorakhpur, and 133 children have died in Ranchi.