According to a video of Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) commander Ilyas Kashmiri, Pakistan Army Chief Asim Munir ordered the Corps Commander of Bahawalpur to attend the funeral of those killed at JeM headquarters after Operation Sindoor.
Operation Sindoor was a targeted attack by India on nine military infrastructures in Pakistan, as a retaliation to the April 22 Pahalgam attack.
Pakistan Army Chief Asim Munir directly ordered the Corps Commander of Bahawalpur and soldiers to attend the funerals of those killed in Indian missile strikes on Jaish-e-Mohammad’s headquarters on May 7, according to JeM commander Ilyas Kashmiri.
In a video that went viral on Thursday, Kashmiri claimed the Pakistan Army and "jihadi" groups had merged after decades of JeM’s struggle.
"After the struggle of 25 years, we have brought the state, Pakistan Army, Air Force and Navy on the jihadi ideology. Those who were killed (on the May 7 Indian attack) belonged to JeM, and it was the Pakistan Army and Air Force that had taken their revenge...Tell me, isn't it true?" he said, as per PTI.
He further revealed that following the Bahawalpur strike, about 400 km from Lahore, orders from GHQ Rawalpindi instructed the Corps Commander and soldiers to join the funerals and pay tribute to the dead.
The May 7 attack, part of India’s Operation Sindoor, targeted JeM’s stronghold in Bahawalpur and killed JeM chief Masood Azhar’s 10 family members along with four close associates. Senior Pakistani army generals, police officers and bureaucrats were also present at the funerals.
In another viral clip shared earlier this week, Kashmiri admitted that Azhar’s family was "torn into pieces" in the Indian missile strikes.
Speaking at the Mission Mustafa Conference in Punjab’s Bahawalpur on September 6, Kashmiri stood flanked by armed men and declared: "To protect the ideological and geographical boundaries of this country, we hit (wage a jihad in) Delhi, Kabul and Kandhar. And after sacrificing everything, on May 7, Maulana Masood Azhar's family members in Bahawalpur were torn into pieces (in Indian strikes)," PTI quoted.
The May 7 operation came in retaliation to the April 22 Pahalgam attack in Jammu and Kashmir, where terrorists killed 26 people, mostly civilians.
Azhar later issued a statement confirming the deaths of his relatives — including his elder sister and her husband, a nephew and his wife, a niece, and five children — along with his close associate, that associate’s mother and two other companions.
(with PTI inputs)
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