India could make a fresh bid to tag Jaish-e-Muhammad chief Masood Azhar, the alleged mastermind of the Pathankot attack, as a global terrorist, reports The Times of India. The move will also serve as a test for China, which had blocked an earlier Indian proposal to this effect at the United Nations Security Council in 2010 at the behest of Pakistan.

The government is considering reviving the request as it feels the current situation - where the evidence points to Jaish's hand in the terror strike, and with Pakistan itself detaining some members of the outfit - will make it difficult for China to oppose India's demand.

Given the strategic interests that bind China and Pakistan, including their militaries, Beijing will find it difficult to go against Pakistan's interests.

But at the same time, China has condemned the attack on the Indian airbase, and is having to deal with Islamic extremists radicalised and trained in Pakistan and Afghanistan.

China has expressed concern over links between the East Turkestan Islamic Movement (ETIM) and Pakistani extremists, and though military operations and drone attacks have thinned the ETIM's leadership, the outfit's impact on China's Uighur region, and even urban centres where stabbing attacks have taken place, is worrying.

Previously, China is understood to have raised queries about India providing "insufficient information" relating to Azhar and two other top terror operatives, Abdur Rehman Makki and Azam Cheema of Lashkar-e-Taiba.