JeM chief Masood Azhar ‘alive’, says Pakistani media

TIL Desk/World/Washington/ India’s most wanted terrorist and Jaish-e-Mohammed chief Masood Azhar is “alive”, a Pakistani media report said, quoting unnamed sources close to his family. 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. Quoting unnamed sources close to the family of the JeM chief, the channel said Azhar is “alive”, without elaborating on his health condition. There was no official word on Azhar’s fate from the Pakistan government.

“I don’t know anything at this moment,” Pakistan’s Federal Information Minister Fawad Chaudhry said, when asked about media reports claiming death of Azhar. A resident of Bahawalpur in Pakistan’s Punjab province, Azhar formed the Jaish-e-Mohammed in 2000.

The 50-year-old Azhar, who was released by the National Democratic Alliance 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 Indian Air Force base and the latest Pulwama terror strike.