Jaish-e-Mohammed Chief Masood Azhar Is “Not Dead”

India’s most wanted terrorist and Jaish-e-Mohammed chief Masood Azhar is “alive”, a Pakistani media report said on Sunday. Geo Urdu News reported that the media reports claiming that JeM leader is dead, are false.

The report came amid speculation on social media that JeM founder has died. However, there was no official confirmation.

The terror organisation, JeM, Sunday, also released a statement saying, “Respectful Mr Masood Azhar by the grace of Allah, is safe, sound and alright,” putting an end to speculations over his death.

“I don’t know anything at this moment,” Federal Information Minister Fawad Chaudhry told PTI, when asked about media reports claiming death of Azhar.

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.

The Indian officials said they had no information other than that Azhar was undergoing treatment at an army hospital after suffering renal failure.

Jaish terror group’s Balakot camp, where training was imparted to recruits to carry out suicide attacks, was targeted by the IAF in an air strike last week, following the Pulwama terror attack in which 40 CRPF personnel were killed.

The 50-year-old Azhar, who was released by the NDA government in 1999 in exchange of hostages of the hijacked Indian Airlines plane IC-814, has been accused of being the mastermind of the 2001 Parliament attack, suicide attack on Jammu and Kashmir state assembly, attack on Pathankot IAF base and the latest Pulwama terror strike.