- Masood Ilyas Kashmiri claimed Pakistan Army sent generals to terrorists' funerals after Operation Sindoor
- India's Foreign Secretary showed photos of terrorists given state funerals with Pakistan's national flag
- India plans to submit a dossier to FATF to relist Pakistan due to failure to enact anti-terror law
A fresh controversy has erupted after a video of Masood Ilyas Kashmiri, a top commander of the terrorist outfit Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) went viral on the internet where he claimed that the Pakistan Army and its Chief, Asim Munir had "sent generals to funerals" of those killed in India's Operation Sindoor.
For decades, Islamabad has officially denied sponsoring terrorist groups operating from its soil. Yet Kashmiri, speaking at the 38th annual Mission Mustafa conference, openly alleged that Pakistan's military under Mr Munir had dispatched senior officers to attend funerals of terrorists killed in Indian operations during Operation Sindoor.
At a press briefing in New Delhi in May, Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri had unveiled a photograph showing Abdur Rauf - designated by the US as a terrorist - leading prayers at one such funeral. The killed, Mr Misri noted, were wrapped in Pakistan's national flag and accorded "state honours."
"As far as we are concerned, the individuals eliminated at these facilities were terrorists. Giving terrorists state funerals may be a practice in Pakistan. It doesn't seem to make much sense to us," Mr Misri remarked.
Mr Munir himself has also courted global attention for his nuclear sabre-rattling. In an address in Tampa, Florida this August, the Pakistan army chief warned that his country would not go down alone in the event of war with India. "We are a nuclear nation. If we think we are going down, we'll take half the world down with us," he was quoted as saying.
Those comments drew sharp condemnation in Washington. Former Pentagon official Michael Rubin said that Pakistan was behaving like "a rogue state." Mr Rubin further compared Munir's tone to Osama bin Laden and even the Islamic State.
"Americans look at terrorism through the lens of grievance...They don't understand the ideological underpinnings of many terrorists. Asim Munir is Osama bin Laden in a suit," he said.
Despite these warnings, Mr Munir was hosted at the White House for a lunch with US President Donald Trump on June 18, just weeks after India launched Operation Sindoor. US Central Command chief General Michael Kurilla even praised Pakistan as a "phenomenal partner" in counter-terrorism efforts.
Pakistan, however, remains under scrutiny. Although it was taken off the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) Grey List in 2022, New Delhi has been lobbying for its re-listing.
"India will send a dossier to the FATF about including Pakistan in the terror grey list again," a government official said, according to a report by The Hindu. "In 2022, Pakistan was removed from the list and one of the conditions was that it would enact an anti-terror law. That law hasn't come, so the FATF itself has enough reason to put Pakistan back on the list. India's dossier will add to this."
