India on Friday demanded that Pakistan act against terrorist Masood Azhar, chief of banned terrorism group Jaish-e-Mohammed and the mastermind behind terror strikes like the 2011 Parliament attack.
The strong statement followed reports of a public speech by Azhar – his first in 21 years – at an Islamic seminary in Bahawalpur in Pakistan’s Punjab province, in which he reportedly vowed to continue attacks on India and used a derogatory word for Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Referring to reports of Azhar’s speech, External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal, at a scheduled press briefing, also pointed out that it, if true, “had exposed Pakistan’s duplicity” in containing terrorist outfits and terrorists operating from its soil to launch cross-border attacks.
“Masood Azhar is involved in cross-border terror attacks in India. We demand strong action be taken against him, so he is brought to justice. There has been a denial that he is not there in Pakistan… but, if the reports are correct, then it exposes the duplicity of Pakistan,” Mr Jaiswal told reporters.
In his outrageous speech Azhar reportedly also called Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as a “mouse”, and declared his intention to step up terror attacks in Jammu and Kashmir.
The speech was reportedly delivered sometime in November.
Azhar is among India’s most-wanted terrorists.
In September 2019 India branded Azhar and another Pak-based terrorist, Lashkar-e-Taiba founder Hafiz Muhammad Saeed, as ‘individual terrorists’ under the stringent anti-terror law UAPA.
READ | Masood Azhar Branded A Terrorist Under New Anti-Terror Law
Apart from the attack on Parliament in 2001, in which two security personnel were killed, he is also linked to strike on Central Reserve Police Force personnel in Jammu and Kashmir’s Pulwama in 2019.
He also orchestrated an attack on the Indian consulate in Afghanistan’s Mazar-e-Sharif in 2016.
In August 2020, after more than a year of demanding Pak admit its responsibility for the Pulwama terror attack, the Indian government slammed its neighbour for continuing to shelter Azhar.
READ | India Slams Pak For Evading “Responsibility” For Pulwama Terror Attack
Anurag Srivastava, then the MEA spokesperson, had said, “Jaish-e- Mohammed claimed responsibility for the Pulwama attack. The organisation and its leadership are in Pakistan and it is regrettable Masood Azhar, the first accused, continues to find shelter in that country.”
In January of this year, social media posts – apparently from Pakistan-based users – declared that Masood Azhar had died in a bomb blast while returning from a mosque.
READ | Is India’s Most Wanted Terrorist Masood Azhar Dead? A Fact-Check
A fact-check, however, confirmed the news as fake. The photo of the blast that allegedly killed Azhar was found to have first been posted five years ago in an unrelated explosion.
