The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has claimed that Abdul Rauf Azhar, the younger brother of Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) chief Masood Azhar, was among the terrorists killed in India’s missile strikes on terror infrastructure in Pakistan and Pakistan-Occupied Kashmir (PoK) under Operation Sindoor. The airstrikes, which took place yesterday, targeted nine locations across Pakistan and PoK in retaliation for the Pahalgam terror attack that claimed the lives of 26 innocent civilians.
One of the locations struck was the JeM headquarters in Bahawalpur, where Abdul Rauf Azhar was reportedly eliminated. The BJP shared a post on social media featuring a photo of Abdul Rauf Azhar with the word "eliminated" prominently displayed.
Abdul Rauf Azhar, a most-wanted terrorist, was known for his involvement in multiple high-profile terror activities. He was one of the masterminds behind the hijacking of Indian Airlines flight IC 814 in 1999, which was diverted to Kandahar. The Indian government was forced to release three terrorists, including his brother Masood Azhar, to secure the release of the 190 hostages on board. Azhar has also been implicated in the 2016 Pathankot terror attack and the 2001 attack on the Indian Parliament.
In the aftermath of the Indian airstrikes, a statement attributed to Masood Azhar acknowledged the deaths of several of his family members. He claimed that 10 members of his family, along with four of his aides, were killed when India targeted the JeM headquarters in Bahawalpur. The statement, which described those killed as "guests of Allah," detailed the loss of innocent children, relatives, and companions.
Despite the heavy toll, Masood Azhar conveyed that he felt "neither regret nor despair" over the deaths, and instead, expressed a sense of fate in the loss. He stated, "It comes to my heart again and again that I too would have joined this fourteen-member happy caravan. Time for their departure had come, but the Lord did not kill them."
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