In response to news that Jaish-e-Mohammed chief Masood Azhar spoke at a public event in Bahawalpur, India called on Pakistan to take decisive action against him on Friday. According to MEA spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal, if the information is true, it will expose Pakistan’s “duplicity” in dealing with terrorist activity.
“We demand that strong action be taken against him (Azhar) and he should be brought to justice. There has been denial that he is not there in Pakistan,” said Jaiswal. “If the reports are correct then it exposes the duplicity of Pakistan. Masood Azhar is involved in cross-border terror attacks on India and we want that strong action be taken against him,” Jaiswal added.
When asked a question during his weekly media briefing, he said such things. Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) militants heard Azhar’s first speech in more than two decades on Tuesday, according to the group’s online digital platform.
A century after the fall of the Turkish caliphate in 1924, Azhar’s speech called for a return to acts of terror against Israel and India in order to establish a new Islamic framework for the world.
The time and place of Azhar’s address were not made public by the Jaish-e-Muhammad. Although Masood Azhar’s previous lectures have been shared on the group’s digital media on occasion, this one is the first that can be positively dated because it makes reference to the ongoing battle in Gaza. The story went on to say that the address was probably given late last month at the Umm-ul-Qura seminary and mosque complex outside Bahawalpur, Pakistan, citing an Indian intelligence official with knowledge of JeM operations.
This 1,000-acre complex consists of multiple dwelling units as well as an administration block. After a group of Jaish attempted to kill General Pervez Musharraf, the former military leader of Pakistan, in 2003, Azhar was prohibited from appearing in public.
Prior to that, he was detained after the 2001 terrorist attack on the Indian Parliament, though he was never prosecuted. In 2016, Pakistani authorities placed him in what they referred to as “protective custody.”
