Masood Azhar Dead? Jaish-e-Mohammed Chief Died on March 2, Say Reports
According to News18, intelligence sources said Masood Azhar died on March 2.
New Delhi/Islamabad, March 3: Masood Azhar, head of the terror outfit Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM), is reportedly dead. According to News18, intelligence sources said Masood Azhar died of liver cancer on March 2. A formal announcement about Masood Azhar's death may happen by Pakistan after its army confirms the report. Azhar's JeM is responsible for several terror attacks in India, including the recent suicide bombing in Jammu and Kashmir's Pulwama.
Masood Azhar's whereabouts had been unknown since the Indian Air Force (IAF) conducted an air strike on terror group Jaish-e-Mohammed’s biggest training camp near Balakot deep inside Pakistan early Tuesday. On Friday, Pakistan's Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi admitted that Masood Azhar was in their country. Azhar had been bed-ridden as his kidney and spinal cord were affected by ailments.
Indian officials on Saturday told news agency PTI that Azhar was suspected to be suffering from renal failure and was under regular dialysis at an army hospital in Rawalpindi in Pakistan. Pakistan Lie Busted Again! Lockheed Martin Not Suing India For Claiming MiG-21 Shot Down F-16 Fighter Jet.
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Azhar is accused of several deadly terrorist attacks in India, including one on the Uri military base in Kashmir in 2016 in which 17 security personnel were killed. He was also involved in the 2001 attack on Parliament and the 2005 attack in Ayodhya. His JeM has already been in the UN's list of banned terror outfits. He was one of the terrorists that India freed in exchange for the safety of passengers during the IC-814 hijack in 1999.
Amid growing pressure to show the damage caused by IAF's precision air strike, the government is contemplating releasing evidence in the days to come to silence those doubting the impact. The IAF had declared that disclosing proof of the air strike impact was a call to be taken by the government even though electronic evidence gathered by radar images was sufficient to establish the damage caused to the structures.
(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Mar 03, 2019 05:47 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).