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Updated September 14th, 2022 at 07:29 IST

Pakistan passes buck on Pulwama mastermind Maulana Masood Azhar's location to Afghanistan

“We have written one-page letter to Afghan Foreign Ministry to locate, report and arrest Masood Azhar, as we believe he is hiding in Afghanistan," Pak govt said

Reported by: Zaini Majeed
Pakistan
IMAGE: PTI | Image:self
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After the Paris-based international watchdog Financial Action Task Force (FATF) coerced Pakistan into taking action against some of the most high-profile UN-designated terrorists, Islamabad on Tuesday passed the buck about the location of the head of the anti-India terrorist organization Jaish-e-Mohammad (JEM), Maulana Masood Azhar.

Terrorist Azhar was behind the harrowing suicide attack carried out on a CRPF convoy that claimed the lives of 40 Indian paramilitary personnel in Pulwama in 2019. India's National Investigation Agency (NIA) had also filed a charge sheet against the Pakistan-based chief of the banned Jaish-e-Mohammad outfit but neighbouring Pakistan has long evaded its responsibility in handing over the terror accused. 

As the United Nations forced Pakistan to take “effective and irreversible” action against global terrorists operating on its soil, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif-led government wrote a formal letter to Afghanistan pushing the blame for housing the internationally designated terrorist.  Islamabad, in its letter, addressed to the Taliban, requested that Maulana Masood Azhar must be located, reported and arrested as soon as his whereabouts were confirmed. 

UN's calls against Pakistan to eliminate terrorism strengthened after Pakistan's anti-terrorism court in Lahore convicted Lashkar-e-Taiba’s 26/11 operational head Sajid Mir in May this year, despite that Islamabad falsely claimed that he was dead. Mir's arrest came just three days before a US-Pakistan ministerial meeting and a month before the Financial Action Task Force (FATF)  plenary that gave Pakistan a reprieve. 

“We have written a one-page letter to the Afghan Foreign Ministry, asking it to locate, report and arrest Masood Azhar as we believe that he is hiding somewhere in Afghanistan,” a top Pakistani official privy to the development told ANI on the condition of anonymity. 

Pak gives out provinces namely Nangarhar and Kunar as location of Maulana Masood Azhar

Pakistan's Foreign Office spokesperson, when approached, refused to make any comment on the matter. In the one-page letter, Pakistan's government revealed two different provinces namely Nangarhar and Kunar where it said terror outfit JEM's head is "most likely hiding." It is to be noted that there is no evidence presented by Pakistan's government that backed the claim that terrorist Azhar had moved to Afghanistan before the Taliban took control of Kabul on August 15, 2021. Islamabad claims that it had blacklisted the JEM chief on terrorism charges on January 14, 2002, and in its letter claimed that it has received credible intelligence about Maulana Masood Azhar's location. 

Despite Pakistan's unfounded claims that Azhar was not traceable, he is noted to often publish articles on Pakistani social media networks exhorting JeM cadres to indulge in Jihad and eulogizing the Taliban takeover of Kabul, ANI has verified. The global terrorist also hails the Taliban's victory, which he stresses would open avenues for Muslim victories elsewhere, South Asia Press reports. 

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Published September 14th, 2022 at 07:29 IST

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