Things You Need To Know About Jaish-e-Mohammed and Masood Azhar

Here’s what you need to know about the Jaish-e-Mohammed terror group and its head, Maulana Masood Azhar.

Masood Azhar, chief of the Jaish-e-Mohammed militant group, allegedly involved in the terror strike at the Pathankot Air Force base. (Photo: Reuters)

The head of Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM), Maulana Masoor Azhar and his brother Abdul Rouf Asghar have been taken into protective custody by the Pakistani authorities as part of the Pathankot attack probe.

But what is Jaish-e-Mohammed, and who is Masoor Azhar?

• A Pakistan based terror group, JeM was founded by Azhar in 2000.
  
• Azhar was in Indian custody until he was released in a hostage exchange, after an Indian flight was hijacked on 31 December 1999 in Kandahar.
  
• The United States of America (USA) declared JeM as a Foreign Terrorist Organisation in 2001.
  
• In 2002, Pakistan banned JeM.
  
• In 2003, the group fell apart and bifurcated into the Khuddam ul-Islam (KuI) and Jamaat ul-Furqan (JuF).
  
• In the same year, JuF chief Abdul Jabbar tried to kill Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf, which led to his arrest.
  
• Pakistan banned both KuI and JuF in November 2003.
  

JeM’s Major Terror Strikes

• JeM has been responsible for the March 2009 attack on the Sri Lankan cricket team in Lahore.
  
• It was also linked to the abduction and killing of American Journalist Daniel Pearl in February 2002 in Karachi.
  
• JeM terrorists were behind the 13 December 2001 Indian Parliament attack.
  
• JeM was behind the October 2001 suicide bombing of the J&K legislative assembly building in which 30 people were killed.
  
• In 2006, JeM claimed responsibility for a number of attacks, including the killing of several police officials in Srinagar.
  
• JeM has several hundred armed supporters in southern Kashmir and Doda regions, and in the Kashmir Valley.
  

About Maulana Masood Azhar

File photo of Pakistani cleric and Jaish-e-Mohammed Chief Maulana Masood Azhar (left). (Photo: Reuters)

• Maulana Masood Azhar was born on 10 July 1968 in Bahawalpur, Punjab in Pakistan.
  
• Previously a madarsa teacher in Karachi, Azhar was influenced by the jihadi group Harkat-ul-Mujahideen and underwent training in Afghanistan.
  
• Masood Azhar maintained a close link with Afghan Taliban groups.
  
• Azhar was on an assignment to India to strike a deal between two Harkat factions – the Harkat-e-Jihadi Islami, and the Harkat-ul-Mujahideen in 1994.
  
• On 10 February 1994, Masood Azhar was captured by security forces at Khanabal in Anantnag district of Jammu and Kashmir.
  

Azhar was named, along with three others, by the Indian intelligence as one of the four handlers in the Pathankot terror attack.

Also read: India Shares Pathankot Evidence, Names of JeM Handlers With Pak