New Delhi:
Pakistan fired at least 300 drones, some of Turkish origin, toward India in a bid to target military installations in 36 cities in northern and western India, from Jammu and Kashmir to Punjab to Jaisalmer in Rajasthan. India successfully neutralised the attack.
In the special briefing today, Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri talked about the connection between the strikes on Jaish-e-Muhammed headquarters and the murder of Wall Street Journal journalist Daniel Pearl in 2002.
The second wave of attack from Pakistan came after India carried out ‘Operation Sindoor’ – A precision military strike on terrorist infrastructure in Pakistan and Pakistan-Occupied Jammu and Kashmir. This included the headquarters of Jaish-e-Mohammed in Bahawalpur and the base of Lashkar-e-Taiba in Pakistan’s Muridke. India struck nine targets on the night of May 7.
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Bahawalpur And The Daniel Pearl Connection
Bahawalpur, located in Pakistan’s Punjab province, is the headquarters of Jaish-e-Muhammed, a designated terrorist outfit run by Maulana Masood Azhar. The terrorist was behind the 26/11 Mumbai terrorist attack, the Pulwama attacks, and the 2001 Parliament attack. The group is also behind the killing of Wall Street Journal journalist Daniel Pearl, who was beheaded in 2002 in Pakistan while covering a story on the links between Al Qaeda and Pakistan in the aftermath of the 9/11 terrorist attacks in the US.
Terrorist Masood Azhar was the mentor of Omar Sheikh. Both were released during the IC-814 Hijack.
In a special briefing today, Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri answered a question on the link between Bahawalpur and Daniel Pearl, to which he said, “Bahawalpur is the headquarters of Jaish-e-Muhammed, a terrorist group, proscribed terrorist group by the United Nations…Jaish was directly or indirectly involved in the killing of Daniel Pearl, but the real connection is through Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh, a British-Pakistani jihadi, who was arrested in India and later released…and these are all connected figures, individuals.”
Daniel Pearl – Kidnapping To Murder
In January 2002, the Wall Street Journal journalist landed in Pakistan and met a man named Bashir, whom he thought would be a source that could help him get an interview with Maulana Mubarak Ali Gilani, a radical Islamic cleric, but “Bashir” turned out to be Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh, who kidnapped Pearl after luring him in Karachi and later beheaded him on camera.
The video was released on the internet. The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) wrote, Omar Sheikh turned himself in to the police after the murder but said he had surrendered to the ISI – Pakistan’s intelligence agency – a week ago in Lahore. Mariane Pearl told CPJ that “He is kind of untouchable”, referring to Omar Sheikh’s strong association with the ISI.
Other arrests in the case included Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, al-Qaeda’s third-ranking terrorist.
In 2021, the Pakistan Supreme Court ordered the release from prison of Omar Saeed Sheikh. Then US Secretary of State, Anthony Blinken, expressed concern over Sheikh’s acquittal and called Pakistan’s foreign minister.
The terrorist was shifted to Kot Lakhpat Jail in Lahore, and his death row was moved to a prison sentence.
Omar Sheikh And Masood Azhar – The Connection
On December 24, 1999, Indian Airlines’ flight IC-814 was hijacked by Pakistan-based outfit Harkat-ul-Mujahideen (HuM). The aircraft landed in Amritsar, then in Lahore, and later diverted to Dubai, finally landing in Taliban-controlled Kandahar in Afghanistan on December 25. The plane was under terrorists’ control for eight days, during which they demanded the release of three terrorists in exchange for releasing the plane.
Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh was a British-origin Pakistani who was first arrested in Delhi for kidnapping foreign tourists.
Maulana Masood Azhar, Mushtaq Zargar and Omar Sheikh were released from jail to secure the passengers onboard IC-814. Masood Azhar, the terrorist, went on to form Jaish-e-Mohammed, the outfit behind the 2001 Parliament attack, 2016 Uri, 2019 Pulwama, 2008 Mumbai attacks and several other incidents in Jammu and Kashmir. He reportedly received funding and backing from Osama and Pakistan’s ISI.
Masood Azhar was also the mentor of Omar Saeed Sheikh, who was later closely associated with Al-Qaeda.
‘Operation Sindoor’
On the night of May 7, around 1 am, India struck nine targets – Bahawalpur, Muridke, Chakarmu, Sialkot, Gulpur, Bhumber, Kotli and two locations in Muzzafarabad.
In the precision strikes on Bahawalpur, 10 members of his family and four of his aides were killed. The BJP claimed Masood Azhar’s brother, Abdul Rauf Azhar, mastermind of the IC-814 hijack, was also killed in the strikes in one of the nine sites.
BJP in a post claimed Raf Azhar was killed in Indian strikes.
A statement attributed to Azhar said, “Those killed have become the guests of Allah.”
India said it only targeted terrorist infrastructure in Pakistan, debunking Islamabad’s claims that civilians were also killed in the strikes.
Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri said if Pakistan’s statements were true, “It is odd that funerals of civilians are being carried out by coffins wrapped in their national flag… and state honours are being awarded”. “As far as we are concerned… the individuals eliminated at these facilities were terrorists. Giving terrorists ‘state funerals’ may be a practice in Pakistan. But it doesn’t make much sense to us.”