Azhar, who heads Jaish-e-Mohammed terror group, has been charge-sheeted in several cases from the 2001 Parliament attack to the 2019 Pulwama suicide bombing.
New Delhi: Indian armed forces carried out missile strikes on nine terror targets in Pakistan and Pakistan-Occupied Kashmir, including the Jaish-e-Mohammad stronghold of Bahawalpur and Lashkar-e-Taiba’s base Muridke. The military strikes come two weeks after the massacre of 26 civilians in Jammu and Kashmir’s Pahalgam. The strikes were carried out under ‘Operation Sindoor’ at around 1.28 am. According to a statement by the Defence Ministry, the actions by the Indian armed forces have been “focused, measured and non-escalatory” in nature and that no Pakistani military facilities have been targeted.
Why is Bahawalpur considered to be Masood Azhar’s stronghold?
Bahawalpur is considered to be stronghold of India’s most wanted terrorist Masood Azhar.
Azhar, who heads the Jaish-e-Mohammed terror group, has been charge-sheeted in several cases from the 2001 Parliament attack to the 2019 Pulwama suicide bombing.
According to reports, Masood has two houses in Pakistan’s Bahawalpur, with one located right next to the Osman-O-Ali Masjid. The second house of Masood is also located in Bahawalpur, nearly four kilometres away from the first.
It also lies next to a mosque known as Jamia Mosque, and the Bahawalpur bench of the Lahore High Court is just a kilometre away from Masood’s second home, while the District Collector’s office is at a distance of just three kilometres away.
Moreover, there are reportedly four training centres of the terrorist organisation in Bahawalpur.
Bahawalpur also has the headquarters of the Pakistan Army and an airbase. About 10 kilometres away from this, the terrorist organisation Jaish-e-Mohammed was running a training camp.
Who is Masood Azhar?
Masood Azhar was among the three terrorists released by Indian authorities after the 1999 Kandahar hijacking of an Indian Airlines plane.
He went to Pakistan and started his new terror outfit by the name of Jaish-e-Mohammed. He is wanted in the Parliament attack case, terror strike at Pathankot airbase and even in the 2019 case of a suicide attacker of the terror outfit killing 40 CRPF personnel in South Kashmir.
