'Jaish' No More. Hit By Sanctions, Banned Terror Group Changes Name

Banned terrorist group Jaish-e-Mohammed will now be known as Al-Murabitun - which means 'defenders of Islam' in Arabic - within Pakistan, intel sources told NDTV this week. The new name will be used during the 'memorial' next week for Yusuf Azhar, the brother of founder Masood Azhar.

Sources said the group - responsible for the attack on the Indian Parliament in 2001, the 26/11 Mumbai attacks, and on the Army in Jammu and Kashmir's Uri and Pulwama - wants to de-link from the 'Jaish-e-Mohammed' name because sanctions make it difficult to access funding.

The name change, however, is only expected for its Pak operations, sources said.

A July report by the Financial Action Task Force, a global anti-terror funding watchdog, underlined the funding challenge facing the terrorist group. The FATF said the Jaish is now using digital payments, i.e., e-wallets and UPI transfers, to channel money into rebuilding itself.

According to the FATF five such e-wallets have been traced so far, and each has direct links to the terrorist group and members of founder Masood Azhar's family. The goal, reports indicate, is to raise nearly four billion Pak rupees to set up over 300 'markaz', i.e., hubs or training centres.

Routing funding via digital wallets means Pak can say it has 'cut off' funding - via formalised means like bank transfers - and comply with FATF rules, but the Jaish still gets money.

NDTV this week accessed a dossier detailing re-building efforts by the Jaish after its base in Pak's Bahawalpur was destroyed by India during Operation Sindoor. India launched missile strikes against nine terrorist camps, including Bahawalpur, on May 7 in response to the Pahalgam terror attack.

READ | After Op Sindoor, Pak Terrorists Shif To This Remote Region To Rebuild

The dossier indicates the Jaish-e-Mohammed and other targeted terrorist groups, including Hafiz Saeed's Hizbul Mujahideen, have begun re-locating deeper into Pakistan, setting up bases in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province that shares an international border with Afghanistan.

As part of that rebuilding process the group is also on a recruitment drive; in fact, one such drive was conducted in Garhi Habibullah, a town in Mansehra district, on September 14.

The drive - headlined by Jaish commander Masood Ilyas Kashmiri, whose speech included exposing Pak's links with terror groups operating on its soil - was held seven hours before the India-Pakistan cricket match in Dubai, and included Pak Army and police providing protection.