Azhar is heard in a recent audio clip exhorting ‘Kashmiri’ youngsters to do their religious duty by rising up against India’s move to abrogate Article 370.
NEW DELHI: After asking Masood Azhar to lie low for months, a frustrated Pakistani establishment has again brought him to the forefront of its terrorist activities. The Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) chief is back in action, resuming his religious “preaching”, with the objective of recruiting cadre for terror operations in India.
Azhar had gone “underground” in the last few months and had stopped delivering his religious discourse—which is attended by thousands of people—mostly at his palatial and well-guarded Jamia Masjid Subhan Allah mosque in Bahawalpur.
The Sunday Guardian has accessed Azhar’s most recent audio clip, which, in most likelihood, was recorded earlier this week. In this discourse, Azhar is heard asking the “Kashmiri” youngsters how they can tolerate what is “happening” in India, in the context of the abrogation of Article 370 on 5 August.
During his discourse, Masood Azhar is heard asking the “Kashmiri” youngsters and “Muslims” to do their “religious duty” in Kashmir and not stay silent any longer.
Informed sources said that unlike recent Indian media reports that stated that Azhar was “released” from detention by the Pakistani authorities earlier in the week, he was never in any detention and was just lying low.
“He is always guarded by a mixed group of his own followers and men from the Pakistan army and ISI. Everyone in the establishment in Pakistan knows this. He was never arrested or detained, as some reports claimed; he was just asked to lie low and limit his interactions with the common people who came from distant areas to listen to him. The only thing that has changed in the last few days is that he has resumed his anti-India rhetoric, calling for snatching of Kashmir from India. His speeches are extremely incendiary in nature and have a deep impact on listeners, as he uses religious pretexts to justify terrorist actions. Pakistan was forced to unleash him once again as they needed new people to carry out terror attacks in Kashmir,” a source said.
Officers in ISI and GHQ Rawalpindi believe that with Pakistan being economically bankrupt and thus unable to start an overt war with India, the best option they have is to push for an uprising in Kashmir so that enough international attention is directed towards Kashmir.
A Delhi-based security analyst said: “Their primary aim is not to allow the situation in Kashmir to become normal. For this, they are planning to send more terrorists into the valley so that even if the local Kashmiri wants to restart his regular routine, he will not be able to do so because of the presence of these terrorists. Pakistan knows that turning Kashmir into a ‘religious’ war will attract terrorists and lone wolf attackers.”