Masood Azhar's 'Paradise' Promise And 'Men' Warning To Jaish Women Recruits

Enemies of Jaish-e-Mohammed have put "Hindu women into the Army", and the terror outfit's new women brigade, Jamaat ul-Mominaat, aims to counter this move, Jaish chief Masood Azhar has said. In a 21-minute audio recording accessed by NDTV, Azhar says "enemies of Jaish" have also propped "female journalists against us" and that he is "mobilising women to compete and fight against them".

The speech, reportedly delivered at Markaz Usman-o-Ali in Bahawalpur, details the blueprint for training, indoctrinating, and deploying women under the new wing of Jaish, which has carried out several terror attacks in India, including those in Uri and Pulwama.

Azhar says that members of the women's wing will be trained like Jaish's male recruits. He says that just as male recruits undergo the 15-day "Daura-e-Tarbiat" course, women joining Jamaat-ul-Mominaat will be part of an induction course called "Daura-e-Taskiya". This training will be conducted at Markaz Usman-o-Ali.

Daura-e-Tarbiat, the first phase of Jaish indoctrination, focuses on radicalising recruits and convincing them that participating in terror activities against India will pave their way to Paradise. Taking the same line, Azhar says any woman who joins Jamaat-ul-Mominaat "will go straight to paradise after death". He adds that women completing the first course will move on to the second phase, "Daura-Ayat-ul-Nisah", where they will be taught how Islamic texts "instruct women to conduct jihad".

Azhar announces that Jamaat-ul-Mominaat branches will be established in every district of Pakistan, and each branch will be headed by a muntazima (manager) responsible for recruiting women.

The terrorist imposes strict rules for women joining the brigade: they must not speak to any "unrelated men through phone or messenger, except their husbands or immediate family members".

Earlier, reports said Azhar had appointed his sister, Sadiya Azhar, as the head of the women's brigade. Also part of its leadership are Azhar's other sister, Samaira Azhar, and Afeera Farooq, the wife of terrorist and Pulwama attack mastermind Umar Farooq.

Azhar says in his speech that Jamaat-ul-Mominaat includes 4-5 women whose relatives were killed in encounters with the Indian Army. He also urges women recruits to read his book "Ae Musalman Behna".

Fourteen members of Azhar's family were killed during Operation Sindoor, India's counterstrike to avenge the Pahalgam terror attack. Azhar says in the audio that his elder sister, Hawa Bibi, died in the same strike. He recounts that he had planned the women's brigade with his sister before she was killed. 

The launch of Jaish's women brigade shows that terror outfits are flourishing in Pakistan despite Islamabad's tall claims of fighting terrorism in global fora. 

This also comes as women officers take up critical combat roles in India's defence forces. In a related development, Squadron Leader Shivangi Singh posed with President Droupadi Murmu at Haryana's Ambala Air Force base after giving the latter a hands-on tour of the new Rafale multi-role fighter. This photograph was a huge fact-check after Pakistan media reports claimed Squadron Leader Singh's fighter jet was shot down during Operation Sindoor and she had been captured.