Amid rumours of his death, Pakistan moves Masood Azhar out of army hospital

Amid rumours that Jaish-e-Muhammed chief Masood Azhar may have been killed in the IAF strike on Balakot — which was denied by Jaish — intelligence sources told TOI the Pakistan Army had shifted him from its Rawalpindi base hospital to a Jaish camp in Goth Ghanni in Bahawalpur at around 7.30pm on Sunday.

Azhar is known to have a renal ailment and was being treated at Rawalpindi Army hospital for several months.

Jaish recently in a statement said that Azhar was alive and doing well. It also admitted that IAF had struck at its training centre in Balakot, but denied that it suffered any casualties. “India’s fighter jets, with Israeli guided missiles, attacked us but Allah’s angels diverted them and protected us,” Jaish said on Sunday.

“First they (Pakistan) released the Indian pilot and now they have decided to crack down on our seminaries. They are being soft towards the enemy (India) but tough on their own people (Jaish),” the statement continued as Jaish-e-Muhammed mentioned how the Imran government had begun to follow the policies of former President General Pervez Musharraf.

Following 9/11, Musharraf had cracked down on several terror groups after the US had told Pakistan to take a clear stand against terrorism.

Last week, Pakistani foreign minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi had released a statement confirming that Azhar was indeed in Pakistan but he was unwell. “He is in Pakistan, according to my information he is very unwell. He is unwell to the extent that he cannot leave his house,” Qureshi had said.