On Wednesday, the Pakistan government is said to have issued a letter to Afghanistan’s Taliban administration demanding the arrest of Maulana Masood Azhar, the leader of the terror group Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM). Amid the mounting pressure over terror funding in Pakistan, the country is establishing a narrative that Azhar who is most wanted by the Indian government is in Afghanistan.
According to the reports, banned terrorist organization chief Maulana Masood Azhar accused of the Pulwama blast is in the Nangarhar and Kanhar provinces of Afghanistan. However, Pakistan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs on September 14 sent a letter for the second time to Afghan officials seeking Azhar’s arrest. The first letter was sent by the country in January this year when it took up the issue with Afghanistan at a ministerial level.
Pakistan has formally written a letter to the Afghan authorities regarding the presence of Maulana #MasoodAzhar, the founding head of the banned terrorist organization Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM), in Afghanistan. pic.twitter.com/3N7DepQei6
— IANS (@ians_india) September 13, 2022
“He could be in Nangarhar and Kunar areas, so he should be found, arrested, and informed”, the letter by Pakistani officials read. The news comes as the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) has increased pressure on Islamabad to take action against terror funding flowing from its territory. The Paris-based watchdog has also suggested that Pakistan might be removed from the grey list if it works effectively against terror organizations.
Taking cognizance of the event, India has termed this move led by Pakistan as hogwash. “This could be Pakistan’s attempt to comply with the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) mandate and get off the intergovernmental organization’s grey list”, the Indian officials were quoted by CNN-News18.
Very recently, the country of Pakistan convicted and jailed 26/11 Mumbai attack architect and Lashkar e Taiba commander Sajid Mir. This is after the FATF increased pressure on Pakistan to act against the terrorists. India’s Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) then also questioned the decision’s ‘timing,’ claiming that it was made to get ‘leniency’ from the FATF.
Meanwhile, Pakistan has said unequivocally that Azhar is not present in Pakistan and is most likely to be found in Afghanistan. Interestingly, Azhar routinely posts articles on Pakistani social media networks encouraging JeM cadres to join the fight and stating that a Taliban win in Afghanistan will pave the way for Muslim conquests everywhere in the globe.
Masood Azhar’s name was added to the list of internationally designated terrorists by the United Nations on May 1, 2019. In 2008, the United States placed his name on the list of Foreign Terrorist Organizations.
