Planning to approach the UN Security Council for the listing of Jaish-e-Mohammad chief Masood Azhar, India has lashed out at the UN's action plan on the "lack of single contact point" in preventing violent extremism. Sources said India is nominating an experienced official from the security establishment as member in the key UNSCR 1267 sanctions committee. "K Muralidharan, who has had experience in counter-terrorism issues, is being nominated for the job," a source in the government told The Indian Express. [related-post] The UNSCR 1267 committee is the key UN panel that decides on 'listing' of terrorists, which leads to travel ban, asset freeze and other sanctions against the listed individuals. India's Permanent Represent-ative at the UN in New York, Syed Akbaruddin, who was speaking on the Secretary General's report on 'Preventing Violent Extremism', at the UN General Assembly, said, "Our view (is) that the current architecture at the UN is not sufficient to tackle this virus that threatens us collectively. The action plan provides no solution to this shortcoming. For example, where is the single contact point that will assist member-states seeking United Nations assistance in preventing violent extremism? Having gone through the entire action plan, unfortunately, we did not find an answer to this simple and basic question." India's position is that while the action plan is "full of prescriptions" to member countries, it is low on what the UN will do in terms of assisting member-states in this venture. Akbaruddin told the UNGA that India acknowledges addressing this "malaise" is primarily a member-state's responsibility. "Nevertheless, we need substantive value addition from the UN. Even more important than what we face is how we respond to the threat," he said. "What we are tackling is not merely a local problem that can be addressed unilaterally; it is a global contagion. Global links, franchise relations, home-grown terrorism and use of cyber space for recruitment and propaganda. All these present a new level of threat. We need significant options of international cooperation, which we do not discern in the plan before us today." Sources said the Indian approach was articulated by Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar recently when he said that while terrorists think at a global level, governments are thinking at a national, and even departmental level.
