About 100 members of banned terror outfit Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM), who were released from Afghan prisons by the Taliban, have joined back and the outfit is planning to carry out fresh attacks in India, particularly in Jammu and Kashmir, according to information gathered by security agencies.
The agencies have come across JeM-linked social media posts about the outfit chief, Masood Azhar, exhorting the cadres to prepare for attacks in Jammu and Kashmir following the Afghanistan victory. “At the institutions controlled by the terror outfit, sermons given to the followers last week revolved around the same theme,” said a security agency official.
“Senior functionaries of the JeM and the Taliban have already held meetings. The JeM has been assured of all the support in carrying out its activities targeting India. The developments in Afghanistan will also embolden Pakistani forces, which facilitate infiltration of terrorists,” the official stated.
Several terrorists eliminated
The alert security forces have eliminated several JeM cadres in J&K this year so far. “Two key Pakistani commanders of the outfit, Mohammed Ismail and Abdul Rashid Ghazi, were killed in an encounter in the Hangalmarg forest of the Tral area in Pulwama on July 31. They were the masterminds behind the Pulwama terror attack on February 14, 2019, and wanted by the National Investigation Agency,” the official said.
Ismail and Ghazi were said to be involved in a series of attacks and had recruited several local youth to the JeM fold in the Kashmir Valley. “Their killing by the security forces was a setback for the JeM operations in J&K. However, the recent developments in Afghanistan have again emboldened the outfit,” the official noted.
JeM was proscribed by the United Nations Security Council on October 17, 2001, for its deep links with Al-Qaeda and Taliban, in terms of financing, supplying weapons, planning and facilitating terror attacks by them. Masood Azhar is also a U.N. designated terrorist.
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