The chief of terror outfit Jaish-e-Muhammad, Masood Azhar is reportedly undergoing treatment in a Pakistan Army Hospital. According to security officials, Azhar is suspected of being diagnosed with renal failure and undergoes regular dialysis at the Pak army hospital in Rawalpindi, Pakistan.
The report comes days after Pakistan Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi said that the JeM chief is “really unwell”.
A few days ago, Pakistan Foreign Minister Qureshi went on record to confirm that the chief of proscribed terror outfit Jaish-e-Muhammad, Masood Azhar is indeed in Pakistan, though in sick condition and unwell to the extent that he cannot move out of his house.
In another instance, in an interview shared by the BBC yesterday, Qureshi candidly admitted that their government is in contact with Jaish-e-Mohammad leadership. Later, on realising the enormity of his claim and its repercussions, he appeared to scramble for words to salvage himself from the situation. When the interviewer points out that JeM is a terror outfit, Qureshi tries to clumsily defend it by equating it with the perceived Human Rights violations in Jammu and Kashmir.
In the aftermath of the Pulwama attack, that killed 40 CRPF personnel and whose responsibility was claimed by Pakistan based Jaish-e-Muhammad, the Intelligence agencies revealed that the Pakistan Army had issued an advisory to Hafeez Saeed and Masood Azhar to remain low profile until the international pressure on the Pulwama attack fizzles out. This protective advice from the Pakistan Army uncovers the charade of Pakistan’s PM and his delegates who have been in a continuous denial mode, ranting the similar rhetorics of Pakistan not being behind the terror attack.
The successive admissions of Masood Azhar’s presence in Pakistan by a senior leader such as Pak foreign minister and the corroborating report from the security officials confirm that the chief of Jaish-e-Muhammad is in Pakistan and is operating under the tutelage of the Pakistan Army. The recent report that Masood Azhar is being treated at Pakistan Army Hospital in Rawalpindi establishes beyond any reasonable doubt the connivance of Pakistan’s establishment with the terror outfit JeM. Pakistan’s claims of acting against the terrorists operating on its soil then ring hollow as terrorists like Masood Azhar and Hafeez Saeed continue to enjoy Pakistan Army patronage to carry out their nefarious designs against India.