New Delhi: The Congress on Thursday hit out at the Modi government for singularly claiming credit for the designation of Masood Azhar as a global terrorist by the UN and asked it to give a reply to Pakistan's claim that Kashmir and the Pulwama attack were de-linked in the JeM chief's listing. The Congress also came out with a list of six anti-terror surgical strikes carried out during UPA rule, asserting that it never tried to take political advantage from military operations. Senior party leader P Chidambaram said the Congress is happy that the process of designating JeM chief Azhar as a global terrorist has concluded successfully. He also asked why Pakistani premier Imran Khan wants Narendra Modi to continue as India's prime minister. Condemning Pakistan's claims that it agreed to Azhar's listing after all "political references", including attempts to link him to the Pulwama attack, were removed from the proposal, the Congress said it was a serious matter and a reply must be given to "Pakistan's mischief".

In 2009, India first moved a proposal by itself to designate Azhar a global terrorist.In 2016 again, India moved the proposal with the P3 -- the United States, the United Kingdom and France -- in the UN's 1267 Sanctions Committee to ban Azhar, also the mastermind of the attack on the Pathankot air base in January 2016. In 2017, the P3 nations moved a similar proposal again. However, on all occasions China, a veto-wielding permanent member of the UN Security Council, blocked India's proposal from being adopted by the Sanctions Committee. Congress spokesperson Rajeev Shukla hit out at the remarks made by Union ministers Arun Jaitley and Nirmala Sitharaman at a joint press conference, saying such designations were the result of a continuous process and just one government should not take credit for it. "We humbly request them with folded hands to not take credit for everything. Stop taking credit and applauding yourself. Also, tell the country that you had freed Azhar from a Jammu jail. We had got Hafiz Saeed designated (as a global terrorist after the Mumbai terror attacks)," he said at a press conference.