A Jaish-e-Mohamad (JeM) commander has admitted that the family of Masood Azhar, the terror group’s top commander, was ‘torn into pieces’ in strikes on Bahawalpur during Operation Sindoor – India’s precision strikes on terror establishments in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK).
In a viral video on the internet, JeM commander Masood Ilyas Kashmiri can be heard explaining how the Indian armed forces entered their hideout and attacked them.
“Embracing terrorism, we fought Delhi, Kabul and Kandahar for protecting the borders of this country. After sacrificing everything, on May 7, Maulana Masood Azhar’s family was torn apart by Indian forces in Bahawalpur,” Kashmiri is heard saying in Urdu in an emotionally charged speech.
Operation Sindoor
India conducted Operation Sindoor weeks after 26 civilians were killed in a terror attack in Jammu and Kashmir’s Pahalgam. Indian security forces, under coordinated overnight strikes on nine terrorist facilities inside Pakistan and PoK, targeted the deep infrastructure of Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) and Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT).
Bahawalpur, Pakistan’s 12th largest city, was targeted as it serves as the nerve centre of JeM. Located around 400 km from Lahore, it houses JeM’s operational headquarters at the Jamia Masjid Subhan Allah, also known as the Usman-o-Ali campus.
Azhar had acknowledged the loss
After the strikes, Azhar, who is a globally-designated terrorist and Jaish-e-Mohammad chief, acknowledged that on 7 May, as many as 14 people, including 10 members of his family and four close associates, were killed in India’s ‘Operation Sindoor.’
A statement by Azhar circulated through his Telegram channel said those killed in the attack on Jamia Masjid Subhan Allah in Bahawalpur included the JeM chief’s elder sister and her husband, a nephew and his wife, another niece, and five children from his extended family.
The statement further mentioned that the attack also claimed the lives of one of Azhar’s close associates and his mother, along with two other close companions.’
Embracing terrorism, we fought Delhi, Kabul and Kandahar for protecting the borders of this country. After sacrificing everything, on May 7, Maulana Masood Azhar’s family was torn apart by Indian forces in Bahawalpur.
Azhar had, however, said he wished he was part of the 14 ‘fortunate’ people from his home killed in the attack. “But time to meet God (die) is fixed. There were four kids in our home yesterday aged between 3 and 7 years. All of them have gone to live in heavens,” Azhar said.
Formed in the early 2000s when UN proscribed terrorist Masood Azhar called for jihad in Kashmir, JeM is responsible for numerous attacks on Indian soil over the past two decades.
