Masood Azhar hidden in a safe house in Islamabad by Pakistani agencies

New Delhi: Designated as a global terrorist by the United Nations, Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) chief and Pulwama terror attack mastermind Masood Azhar has been shifted to a safe house in Islamabad from his residence in Bahawalpur by Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), sources have said.

A dossier prepared by the government on the global terrorist which has also been shared with the international community, says that the Azhar was “put under house arrest at Markaz Subhan Allah in Bahawalpur, post ‘Balakot Attack’ and has been recently shifted to a Safe House in Islamabad.”

Pakistan has been hiding Azhar and his relatives from the public glare ever since he carried out Pulwama attack against CRPF personnel in February this year in which 40 jawans were killed and has been hiding fearing a direct Indian strike on him.

In the dossier, sources said Jaish head has not only intensified terrorist operations against the Indian government, security forces and civilians in Jammu and Kashmir but has also broadened Jaish’s operational focus by joining Afghan Taliban in attacks against government and coalition forces in Afghanistan.

“JeM has undertaken a recruitment drive through its students and charity fronts. Talba Al-Murabitoon (Students Movement for Ideological and Geographical Defence of Islam and Pakistan), along with other wings such as Al Rehmat Trust and Preaching Wing, regularly organises events in close coordination in order to urge people to wage Jehad according to Sunnat and Shariah and support their action against India,” the dossier says.

Azhar also decides on the deployment of terrorists along with his brother and Operational Commander of JeM, Mufti Abdul Rauf Asghar. On their direction and supervision, ‘high-value operatives,’ particularly trained terrorists belonging to their family are infiltrated into J&K to conduct spectacular terror attacks.

“The killings of such high-value targets by Indian Security Forces are then projected as “Shahadat” and leveraged for aggressive recruitment and fund collection activities in Pakistan and PoJK. Pamphlets, books dedicated to killed terrorists, photos, posts over social media, speeches of JeM functionaries and audio messages are released to further intensify recruitment and to radicalize for terror operations,” sources said.

Maulana Masood Azhar is also head of the swimming course projected by JeM as ‘Samundari Jehad,’ which has been started at JeM’s Markaz Subhanallah in Bahawalpur, Punjab, during mid-2018. This training has also been incorporated in JeM’s curriculum of advanced training towards its preparation to gain maritime capability in the medium to long run, to undertake sea/river-based operations.

Sources said Prime Minister Narendra Modi and External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj played a key role in getting Masood Azhar designated as a global terrorist by the United Nations Security Council.

To convince China and Bring them on board with the demand, National Security Advisor Ajit Doval was constantly in touch with his counterpart in Beijing. The NSA also held several discussions with his American counterpart to constantly push the issue, they said.