An old photo of Masood Azhar. (File)
New Delhi: In a significant blow to Pakistan-based terror outfit Jaish-e-Muhammed (JeM), Indian armed forces have eliminated 10 family members of its chief, Masood Azhar, during precision strikes conducted as part of Operation Sindoor, on Wednesday. The operation targeted the terror group's headquarters in Bahawalpur, which is in Pakistan’s heartland Punjab province.
Masood Azhar himself confirmed the casualties in a statement, revealing that the victims included his elder sister and her husband, a nephew who worked as an Islamic scholar, his nephew’s wife, his niece, and five children from his extended family. The terror chief also reported the deaths of close associates, including his long-time friend Hazifa, Hazifa’s mother, and two other colleagues.
Key Terrorist Eliminated
However, most notably, Abdul Rauf Azhar, Masood Azhar’s younger brother and operational commander of JeM, was among those killed in the strikes. Rauf Azhar was the mastermind behind the 1999 Indian Airlines IC-814 hijacking that had led to the release of Masood Azhar from an Indian prison.
An enhanced screengrab of a video purportedly showing Rauf Azhar.
Intelligence sources confirm he was also linked to the Daniel Pearl kidnapping and beheading case. Security officials, here in the national capital, described Rauf Azhar’s elimination as a “major blow” to JeM’s command structure and operational capabilities.
In his statement, Masood Azhar expressed grief but remained defiant, describing those killed as “guests of Allah”. “There is no regret and no despair,” Azhar reportedly said in his message, while accusing India of targeting innocent civilians – a claim India has refuted. New Delhi maintained that all targets were legitimate terrorist infrastructure.
It may be recalled that Masood Azhar was designated as a global terrorist by the United Nations security council in 2019, as India Sentinels had reported then, has been responsible for numerous terror attacks on Indian soil, including the 2001 Parliament attack and the 2019 Pulwama attack that claimed the lives of 40 CRPF personnel.
Operation Sindoor is a part of India’s response to the recent Pahalgam terror attack in Jammu & Kashmir. As India Sentinels reported earlier, the strikes carried out during the operation targeted nine terror sites across Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) using precision-guided munitions.
India later said the strikes were “non-military pre-emptive action specifically targeting terror camps” and that all operations had concluded successfully with Indian forces returning safely to base.
‘100 Terrorists Killed in Operation Sindoor’
On Thursday, the defence minister, Rajnath Singh, informed an all-party meeting that approximately 100 terrorists were neutralized in the operation. He also said Operation Sindoor was not over, and it was “still ongoing”.
Leaders of several parties, including the leader of Lok Sabha, Rahul Gandhi; and the leader of Rajya Sabha, Mallikarjun Karge, were present during the meeting. From the government’s side, the home minister, Amit Shah; the foreign minister, S Jaishankar; the finance minister, N Sitharaman; and the BJP leader, Jagat Prakash Nadda, were present.
After the meeting, the parliamentary affairs minister, Kiren Rijiju, told reporters that the entire country is united behind the government and the armed forces at this time.
Meanwhile, Pakistan has vowed to respond to what it termed “unprovoked aggression”. Already, the country has attempted to carry out air and drone strikes in Indian military installations on late Wednesday and early Thursday. However, as India Sentinels reported earlier, Indian armed forces thwarted the Pakistani attempts and destroyed their air defences at many sites.
Defence analysts say Pakistan can be expected to escalate the matter, especially since their army chief, General Asim Munir, doesn’t want to show himself as a weak military leader and lose face and clout in his country.
