In an effort to find and capture Masood Azhar, the head of Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM), the Pakistani foreign ministry has approached the Taliban organisation in Afghanistan. Azhar, a terrorist commander listed by the UN, founded JeM after being released by Indian authorities along with two other terrorists in return for passengers on an Indian Airlines flight that had been hijacked in 1999 and flown from Kathmandu to Kandahar.
Pakistan has written to the Taliban’s foreign ministry requesting that Azhar be found and detained. Azhar is ‘most likely hiding,’ according to the message, in the Afghan provinces of Nangarhar or Kunar. Based on the report, the spokeswoman for Pakistan’s Foreign Office declined to comment on the situation.
At a meeting of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) earlier this year, the West endorsed India’s request for action against 30 important terrorist leaders, including Azhar, Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) founder Hafiz Saeed, and LeT agent Sajid Mir. Before officials officially acknowledged Mir’s detention earlier this year, Pakistan had maintained for months that he was dead. Mir was subsequently found guilty under Pakistan’s Anti-Terrorism Act of belonging to the outlawed LeT, raising money for the organisation, and supplying money for terrorist purposes.
The Financial Action Task Force (FATF) has visited Pakistan to review the country’s compliance with its anti-terror plans. This comes ahead of Pakistan’s likely removal from FATF’s ‘grey list’ at a meeting in October. The Pakistani side had informed FATF earlier this year that authorities believed JeM chief Masood Azhar was on the run and had fled to Afghanistan.
When military ruler Pervez Musharraf was in charge of Pakistan, the JeM was outlawed in January 2002. Al-Rehmat Trust in Bahawalpur and Al-Furqan Trust in Karachi were both outlawed in 2019 by Pakistan’s interior ministry because they were JEM front organisations.
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