New Delhi:
Jaish-e-Mohammad chief Maulana Masood Azhar has claimed that 10 members of his family and four of his aides were killed in India’s targeted airstrikes under Operation Sindoor to avenge the Pahalgam terror attack, news agency PTI reported.
A statement attributed to Azhar, who was arrested in India in 1994 and released after the Air India IC 814 hijack, says that those killed in the strike on JeM headquarters — Jamia Masjid Subhan Allah in Bahawalpur — included his elder sister, her husband, a nephew and his wife, a niece, and five children from the extended family.
“Ten members of my family were blessed with this happiness together tonight… five are innocent children, my elder sister, her honorable husband. My scholar Fazil bhanje (nephew) and his wife and my beloved scholar Fazilah (bhanji) … my dear brother Huzaifah and his mother. Two more dear companions,” he said, saying that those killed have become the guests of Allah.
He said he has “neither regret nor despair”. “Rather, it comes to my heart again and again that I too would have joined this fourteen-member happy caravan,” he added. The terrorist said, “Time for their departure had come, but the Lord did not kill them.” He also invited people to the funeral prayers today.
Fifty-six-year-old Masood Azhar, listed as an international terrorist by the UN Security Council, has been involved in the conspiracy behind multiple terror attacks in India, including the 2001 Parliament attack, 2008 Mumbai attacks, 2016 Pathankot attack and 2019 Pulwama attack. While it is an open secret that the terrorist is in Pakistan, Islamabad has repeatedly denied having information about him.
India fired 24 precision missiles at nine locations in Pakistan and Pakistan Occupied Kashmir last night to avenge the heinous terror attack in Pahalgam in which 26 innocents were killed in cold blood. Indian government sources have said over 70 terrorists were killed and more than 60 wounded in the strikes.
Indian officials have expressed regret for civilian casualties but stressed that all efforts were made to keep them to a minimum. Sources said all targets were carefully vetted and found to be directly linked to terrorist activity.
“The nature of asymmetric warfare, however, often sees terrorist groups embed their facilities in densely populated civilian areas, complicating any effort to avoid non-combatant casualties completely. The collateral damage was notably restrained, especially considering the scale and spread of the operation. This restraint was attributed to India’s use of precision-guided munitions, as well as the selection of targets during late-night hours when civilian presence was minimal,” a government source said. Government sources said that in contrast to India’s restraint, Pakistan’s narrative had shifted towards inflating civilian impact to gain international sympathy. In the briefing to the press after the attack, defence officials shared visuals, showing clearly that the surgical strikes’ impact was largely restricted to targeted compounds.