New Delhi:
India on Friday demanded that Pakistan take action against terrorist Masood Azhar, head of the banned terror group Jaish-e-Mohammed and the mastermind behind terror attacks such as the 2011 parliament attack.
The strong statement followed reports of a public speech by Azhar – his first in 21 years – at an Islamic seminary in Bahawalpur in Pakistan's Punjab province, in which he reportedly vowed to continue attacks on India and used a derogatory word for Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Referring to reports of Azhar's speech, Foreign Ministry spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal also pointed out at a scheduled press conference that, if true, it had “exposed Pakistan's duplicity” in containing terrorists gangs and terrorists operating from its territory to launch cross-border attacks. to attack.
“Masood Azhar is involved in cross-border terror attacks in India. We demand that strong action be taken against him so that he is brought to justice. It is being denied that he is not there in Pakistan… but if the reports are true, then it exposes Pakistan's duplicity,” Jaiswal told reporters.
In his scandalous speech, Azhar also reportedly called Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu a “mouse” and declared his intention to step up terror attacks in Jammu and Kashmir.
The speech was reportedly delivered sometime in November.
Azhar is one of India's most wanted terrorists.
In September 2019, India designated Azhar and another Pak-based terrorist, Lashkar-e-Taiba founder Hafiz Muhammad Saeed, as 'individual terrorists' under the stringent anti-terror law UAPA.
READ | Masood Azhar labeled as terrorist under new anti-terror law
Besides the 2001 attack on Parliament in which two security personnel were killed, he is also linked to the attack on Central Reserve Police Force personnel in Pulwama in Jammu and Kashmir in 2019.
He also orchestrated an attack on the Indian consulate in Mazar-e-Sharif, Afghanistan in 2016.
In August 2020, after more than a year of demanding that Pak admit responsibility for the Pulwama terror attack, the Indian government condemned its neighbor for continuing to harbor Azhar.
READ | India slams Pak for evading 'responsibility' for Pulwama terror attack
Anurag Srivastava, then spokesperson of the MEA, had said, “Jaish-e-Mohammed has claimed responsibility for the Pulwama attack. The organization and its leadership are located in Pakistan and it is unfortunate that Masood Azhar, the first suspect, is still seeking refuge in that country. .”
In January this year, social media posts – apparently from Pakistan-based users – stated that Masood Azhar had been killed in a bomb attack while returning from a mosque.
READ | Is India's most wanted terrorist Masood Azhar dead? A fact check
However, a fact check confirmed that the news was fake. The photo of the blast that reportedly killed Azhar appeared to have been first posted during an unrelated explosion five years ago.
