NEW DELHI: Intelligence reaching right here means that India’s Operation Sindoor resulted in neutralising round a dozen high-value terrorists (HVTs), together with Abdul Rauf Azhar, the operational head of Jaish-e-Mohammad and mastermind of the IC-814 hijacking. Azhar’s elimination is important within the international combat in opposition to terrorism, significantly given his function in facilitating the discharge of Omar Saeed Sheikh, who kidnapped and murdered American-Jewish journalist Daniel Pearl in 2002.At simply 24, Abdul Rauf Azhar etched his identify into the annals of infamy by masterminding the hijacking of Indian Airways flight IC-814 in 1999.His brazen operation secured the discharge of his brother, Maulana Masood Azhar, the founding father of Jaish-e-Mohammad, and catapulted Rauf into the function of supreme commander of the phobia outfit.Because the right-hand man to his brother, Rauf Azhar orchestrated a few of India’s most devastating terrorist assaults, together with the 2001 fidayeen strikes on the Jammu and Kashmir Legislative Meeting and the Indian Parliament, the 2016 Pathankot airbase assault, and the 2019 Pulwama suicide bombing that claimed the lives of 40 CRPF personnel.For years, Rauf Azhar evaded justice, working from the shadows and fueling violence and bloodshed in Jammu and Kashmir and past. However on Wednesday, his reign of terror got here to an abrupt finish when he succumbed to accidents sustained throughout a focused strike by Indian forces on JeM’s headquarters in Pakistan’s Bahawalpur. The strike additionally claimed the lives of 10 relations of Masood Azhar, a stark reminder of the implications of their actions. Rauf Azhar’s demise marks a major blow to the Jaish-e-Mohammad.On Wednesday, Masood Azhar launched an announcement claiming the devastating toll of the Bahawalpur assault on his household. Ten relations died, he alleged, whilst he wished it was him who perished as a substitute.The assertion launched by Jaish-e-Mohammed claimed that Azhar’s elder sister, her husband, a nephew and his spouse, and a niece have been amongst these deceased. With a heavy coronary heart, Azhar described the victims as having attained the next calling, now changing into “friends of Allah”. “I really feel no disappointment. In truth, my coronary heart retains wishing I joined this joyful group of fourteen pilgrims. Their departure was destined, but it was not God who killed them,” stated the infamous terrorist-in-chief, whilst he invited the general public at giant to attend the funeral prayers scheduled for Wednesday at 4pm.Azhar, a 56-year-old terror mastermind sanctioned by the UN Safety Council as a world terrorist, has been linked to a number of high-profile assaults in India, together with the 2001 Parliament assault, the 2008 Mumbai siege, the 2016 Pathankot assault, and the 2019 Pulwama assault. Regardless of widespread stories of his presence in Pakistan, the Pakistani govt maintained it was unaware of his location. Getting him on the worldwide terrorist listing was a problem. India tried to get Azhar designated as a world terrorist underneath the UN Sanctions Committee for years, however China posed roadblocks to make sure safety for the China-Pakistan Financial Hall (CPEC).Azhar’s core group was holed up on the Markaz Subhan Allah in Bahawalpur, together with Mufti Abdul Rauf Asghar and different senior functionaries like Azhar’s brothers and brother-in-law Yusuf Azhar, moreover JeM’s head of PoJK, Mufti Asghar Khan Kashmiri, who was additionally the in-charge of the power. Abdullah Jehadi alias Abdullah Kashmiri and Aashiq Nengroo (Indian fugitive) additionally operated from the centre. Mufti Asghar and Abdullah Jehadi are needed accused within the Nagrota Assault of 2016. The identical yr, he orchestrated an assault on the Indian consulate in Afghanistan’s Mazar-e-Sharif.Masood Azhar was launched from jail in 1999 in trade for the lives of Indian Airways hostages within the Kandahar hijack. He then rose to prominence within the international jihadist motion, fashioned Jaish-e-Mohammed, and orchestrated a number of main assaults on Indian targets, together with the Parliament assault of 2001.
