New Delhi, January 08:
In a significant development, under pressure from FATF (Financial Action Task Force), Pakistan has acknowledged Jaish-e-Mohammad chief Masood Azhar’s presence on its territory.
The JeM chief has been involved in orchestrating many attacks including the latest one on Pulwama, claiming the lives of 40 CRPF paramilitary troopers.
An anti-terrorism court in Pakistan on Thursday issued an arrest warrant for banned Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) chief Masood Azhar on the charges of terror financing.
Pakistan’s anti-terrorism court Gujranwala judge Natasha Supra issued an arrest warrant against JeM chief Masood Azhar, on the request of Counter-Terrorism Department inspector in a terror-financing case.
The court directed that Masood Azhar be arrested and produced in court on January 8.
This comes days after another dreaded terrorist and Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi was arrested here on similar charges.
“ATC Gujranwala judge Natasha Naseem Supra issued an arrest warrant for Masood Azhar and directed the CTD to arrest him and present him in the court. The CTD told the judge the JeM chief was involved in terror financing and selling jihadi literature,” an official told PTI.
He said the ATC judge issued the arrest warrant for Azhar on the request of a CTD inspector.
Azhar is believed to be hiding in a “safe place” in his native town Bahawalpur.
Sources said that under pressure from the FATF, Pakistan has acknowledged Azhar’s presence on its territory. Pakistan is trying to improve its global standing and to wriggle out of the global terror financing watchdog Financial Action Task Force’s grey list, PTI reported.
Following the Pulwama terror attack in February 2019 in India, Pakistan’s Punjab province police had launched a crackdown on terrorism financing and in this connection arrested six activists of the JeM in Gujranwala, some 130kms from Lahore.
The CTD said its teams raided the whereabouts of the JeM’s “safe house” and arrested its members — Muhammad Afzal, Muhammad Amir, Allah Ditta, Muhammad Iftikhar, Muhammad Ajmal and Muhammad Bilal Makki — and recovered lakhs of rupees from their possession, reported PTI.
“The suspects were collecting funds to finance activities of JeM. The chargesheet against them has been submitted to the Anti-Terrorism Court Gujranwala and they are being interrogated,” PTI quoted CTD as saying.
Following immense international pressure after the Pulwama attack, the Pakistan government had arrested over 100 members of banned militant outfits including the JeM chief’s son and brother. The government also took control of the JeM, Mumbai terror attack mastermind Hafiz Saeed’s Jamaat-ud-Dawah (uD) and Falahai Insaniat Foundation (FIF) properties including seminaries and mosques across the country.
JeM had claimed responsibility for the Pulwama terror attack that killed 40 CRPF soldiers.
In May 2019, the United Nations designated Azhar a “global terrorist” after China lifted its hold on a proposal to blacklist the Pakistan-based JeM chief, a decade after New Delhi approached the world body for the first time on the issue.
Who is Masood Azhar?
Azhar is a fugitive released by India in exchange of passengers of the hijacked Indian Airlines plane IC-814 in 1999.
After his release in 1999, Azhar formed the JeM and scripted many audacious terror strikes in India.
On February 26, 2019 India had launched air strikes on what was said to be JeM’s biggest training camp in Pakistan’s Balakot.
The FATF further decided to retain Pakistan on its ‘grey list’ till February 2021 as it failed to fulfill six key obligations, including failure to take action against two of India’s most wanted terrorists Hafiz Saeed and Masood Azhar.
In 2020, Saeed was sentenced for a collective imprisonment of 36 years on terror financing charges in four cases, reported PTI.
On January 2, Pakistan announced that it has arrested Mumbai attack mastermind and Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) operations commander Lakhvi in Lahore on terror financing charges.
