The Indian Armed Forces, while carrying out Operation Sindoor on Wednesday reportedly killed ten family members of Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) chief Masood Azhar including his brother Abdul Rauf Azhar, who was the mastermind of the IC-814 hijacking and the operational head of JeM. The strikes were carried out in the Punjab province in Bahawalpur and Muridke targeting the headquarters of Lashkar-e-Taiba and Jaish in retaliation to the Pahalgam terror attack that claimed the lives of 26 individuals.
Foreign Secretary of India, Vikram Misry, while addressing a press conference has claimed to have no information pertaining to his killing.
Who is Abdul Rauf Azhar?
Abdul Rauf Azhar became one of the most wanted terrorists in India when he masterminded the hijacking of Indian commercial flight IC-814 in 1999. The flight was hijacked by him and four other terrorists to seek the release of his brother who was under captivity in India. Azhar took command as the chief of JeM in 2007 and was among the top five most wanted persons in India ever since.
Upon securing his brother’s release, Azhar had been a part of every major Jaish offensive in India including the 2001 attacks on the Jammu and Kashmir assembly and the parliament, the brutal killing of Wall Street Journal’s journalist Daniel Pearl in 2002, 26/11 Mumbai attacks, 2016 attack on Indian Air Force base in Pathankot, and the Pulwama attack that claimed the lives of 40 CRPF personnel.
According to the intelligence agencies, he was also in-charge of setting up and administering camps in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) while also liaising between the Pakistan government and ISI.
