Bilawal Bhutto Zardari has claimed that Islamabad is unaware of Masood Azhar's whereabouts.
- JeM commander admitted UN proscribed terrorist Masood Azhar's family was hit in Indian strikes on Bahawalpur
- Bahawalpur houses JeM's operational headquarters and is a key extremist hub in Pakistan
- Masood Azhar's family reportedly lost 10 members in Indian military strikes
Months after India destroyed several terror establishments in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) under 'Operation Sindoor', a Jaish-e-Mohamad (JeM) commander has admitted that the family of Masood Azhar, the terror group's top commander, was "torn into pieces" in strikes on Bahawalpur.
In a viral video on the internet, JeM commander Masood Ilyas Kashmiri can be heard explaining how the Indian armed forces entered their hideout and attacked them.
"Embracing terrorism, we fought Delhi, Kabul and Kandahar for protecting the borders of this country. After sacrificing everything, on May 7, Maulana Masood Azhar's family was torn apart by Indian forces in Bahawalpur," Kashmiri said in Urdu, as several gun-wielding security personnel surround him in the background.
At the same event, Masood Ilyas Kashmiri bragged about terror groups having the support of the Pakistan Army and its Chief Asim Munir and said, "Army sent generals to funerals" of those killed in Indian strikes.
Reports have claimed that several top Pakistani military and civil officials attended the funerals of designated terrorists killed in the Indian air strikes under Operation Sindoor.
'Operation Sindoor'
Weeks after 26 civilians were killed in a terror attack in Jammu and Kashmir's Pahalgam, Indian armed forces, under 'operation Sindoor,' conducted coordinated overnight strikes on nine terrorist facilities inside Pakistan and PoK, targeting the deep infrastructure of Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) and Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT). Pakistan later acknowledged that nine sites were hit in the strikes, including locations in Bahawalpur, Kotli and Muridke - all known hubs of extremist activity.
Bahawalpur, Pakistan's 12th largest city, was targeted as it serves as the nerve centre of JeM. Located around 400 km from Lahore, it houses JeM's operational headquarters at the Jamia Masjid Subhan Allah, also known as the Usman-o-Ali campus.
Formed in the early 2000s when UN proscribed terrorist Masood Azhar called for jihad in Kashmir, JeM is responsible for numerous attacks on Indian soil over the past two decades. After Operation Sindoor, Pakistani media reported that Masood Azhar released a statement admitting that 10 of his family members were killed in the Indian operation.
Azhar himself has been in hiding for years, with Pakistani politician Bilawal Bhutto Zardari claiming that Islamabad was unaware of his whereabouts. In a June interview, Bhutto Zardari said his country would be "happy to" arrest him if India gives information that he is on Pakistani soil.
