Pakistan Foreign Minister Accepts JeM Chief Masood Azhar is in Pakistan

Terror mastermind Masood Azhar and the founder chief of Jaish-e-Mohammed, the organisation that is behind the Pulwama attack, is in Pakistan. Pakistan’s Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi has confirmed. This is the first official acknowledgment of the allegation by India that Masood Azhar operates from Pakistan.  

Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi said, “Masood Azhar is unwell, so much that he can’t even leave his house”. He said in an interview to CNN, “He is in Pakistan, according to my information. He is very unwell. He is unwell to the extent that he cannot leave his house because he is really unwell. That’s the information I have”.

And when he was asked why not Pakistan is arresting him as everyone knows his role in terror attacks, Minister Qureshi repeated Pakistan’s repeated line for evidence, as he said, “If they (India) give us evidence which is acceptable to the courts of Pakistan - after all we will have to justify, they will go to court - and if they have solid, inalienable evidence, share it with us so that we can convince the people and convince the independent judiciary of Pakistan. We need to satisfy the legal process”.

In the international stage, India has been long pushing for the UN listing of Masood Azhar, as a global terrorist, the move which has been stalled by China, multiple times using its veto power, as China is an all-time ally of Pakistan.

Masood Azhar is the Chief of Jaish-e-Mohammed or JeM that is was behind the Parliament attack of 2001, attack on the Pathankot air force base in 2016, the attack on an army camp in Kashmir’s Uri in the year 2016 and the recent suicide attack in Pulwama in which over 40 Central Reserve Police Force soldiers were martyred on February 14.

Amid anger and grief over the Pulwama terror attack, India has renewed its call for a UN global terrorist tag on Masood Azhar. India has also handed over a dossier to Pakistan with the specific details of Jaish’s involvement in the Pulwama terror attack and the presence of Jaish’s terror camps and its leadership in Pakistan. In the dossier, India has given details of the route taken by terrorists from Balakot, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, to Jammu and Kashmir.

Now, Pakistan’s Foreign Minister’s admission is very significant, as it has come at a time when the global pressure is building on Pakistan to act against terror groups operating from its territory.