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<\/picture><\/div>\nThe picture is of Pakistani terrorist Maulana Masood Azhar. He has been declared wanted in India.<\/span><\/p>\n India said on Tuesday that Pakistan’s announcement of a 70 lakh Pakistani rupee reward for terrorist Masood Azhar was a sham. Such announcements are merely hollow.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Foreign Ministry spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said that such theatrics and attempts to mislead people by Pakistan were not new. He said, “We have seen such theatrics in the past as well. Pakistan should take concrete action instead.”<\/p>\n Pakistan’s Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) has once again declared Azhar a fugitive in its new Red Book of terrorists. The reward on Azhar, which was earlier 50 lakh, has now been increased. The action was taken ahead of the FATF meeting in October. Azhar is accused in the 2001 Parliament attack and the 2016 Pathankot and 2019 Pulwama attacks.<\/p>\n Masood Azhar in the FIA’s Red Book<\/strong><\/span> <\/p>\n Masood was released after the Kandahar plane hijacking and founded Jaish<\/strong><\/span> On 24 December 1999, an Indian Airlines flight travelling from Kathmandu to Delhi was hijacked. The plane was first taken to Amritsar, then Lahore, Dubai and Kandahar.<\/p>\n Masood Azhar was in an Indian jail at the time. He was a terrorist associated with Harkat-ul-Ansar and was arrested in Jammu and Kashmir in 1994.<\/p>\n After reaching Kandahar, the hijackers demanded his release. On 31 December 1999, India released the terrorists Masood Azhar, Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh and Mushtaq Ahmed Zargar. In exchange, the passengers and crew held hostage on the aircraft were freed.<\/p>\n Records of the United Nations Security Council state that Masood Azhar founded Jaish-e-Mohammed after being released from an Indian prison in 1999. JeM went on to become a major terrorist organisation active against India.<\/p>\n Why FATF action against Masood at the meeting matters: 3 points<\/strong><\/span> 1. <\/strong>Pakistan has previously been on the FATF grey list. During that period, it faced international pressure to take action against terrorist financing and money laundering.<\/p>\n 2. <\/strong>In October 2022, the FATF removed Pakistan from its grey list. With the FATF scheduled to hold a meeting in October, Pakistan’s announcement of action against terrorists such as Masood Azhar is being considered significant.<\/p>\n 3. <\/strong>This could enable Pakistan to try to demonstrate at the international level that it is taking steps against terrorism and terrorist financing.<\/p>\n Pakistan said in 2021: Masood had fled to Afghanistan<\/strong><\/span> Masood Azhar is the founder and chief of Jaish-e-Mohammed. India, the US, the United Nations and several other countries have designated the organisation as a terrorist organisation.<\/p>\n Pakistan claimed in 2021 that Masood Azhar was not in the country and had fled to Afghanistan. That same year, the FIA listed him as a fugitive in its Red Book and announced a reward of \u20b950 lakh.<\/p>\n A policeman standing guard outside Maulana Masood Azhar’s house in Bahawalpur, Pakistan. This photograph was taken on 17 December 2002.<\/p>\n Masood Azhar first came to India in 1994<\/strong><\/span> Masood Azhar first arrived in Delhi from Dhaka on 29 January 1994, travelling by plane from Bangladesh. In 1994, Azhar entered Srinagar using a false identity. His objective was to reduce tensions between the Harkat-ul-Jihad al-Islami and Harkat-ul-Mujahideen groups.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, India arrested him in Anantnag for his involvement in terrorist activities. Azhar said at the time, “Soldiers of Islam have come from 12 countries to liberate Kashmir. We will respond to your carbines with rocket launchers.”<\/p>\n Four years later, in July 1995, six foreign tourists were abducted in Jammu and Kashmir. The kidnappers demanded that Samood Azhar be released in exchange for the tourists. Meanwhile, in August, two of the tourists managed to escape from the kidnappers’ captivity. However, no information could be obtained about the others.<\/p>\n 10 members of Masood’s family were killed in Operation Sindoor<\/strong><\/span> India launched Operation Sindoor against terrorists in Pakistan on 7 May following the Pahalgam attack on 22 April. Ten members of Masood’s family were killed in the Indian attack on Bahawalpur. Four associates were also killed.<\/p>\n The dead included Masood’s elder sister and her husband, Masood’s nephew and his wife, one of Masood’s nieces and her five children. Masood was not at the site at the time of the attack, which saved his life.<\/p>\n According to a BBC Urdu report, the terrorist Masood also issued a statement after the deaths of his family members. He said, \u201cI would have been fortunate if I had died too.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The picture is of Pakistani terrorist Maulana Masood Azhar. He has been declared wanted in India. India said on Tuesday that Pakistan’s announcement of a 70 lakh Pakistani rupee reward for terrorist Masood Azhar was a sham. Such announcements are merely hollow. Foreign Ministry spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said that such theatrics and attempts to mislead…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":38447,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_kad_post_transparent":"","_kad_post_title":"","_kad_post_layout":"","_kad_post_sidebar_id":"","_kad_post_content_style":"","_kad_post_vertical_padding":"","_kad_post_feature":"","_kad_post_feature_position":"","_kad_post_header":false,"_kad_post_footer":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[39859,2416,38704,22033,39860,39861,22036,39858],"class_list":["post-38446","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nation","tag-foreign-ministry","tag-india","tag-masood-azhar","tag-pakistan","tag-pathankot","tag-pulwama","tag-randhir-jaiswal","tag-terrorism"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/petrolnews.in\/live\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38446","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/petrolnews.in\/live\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/petrolnews.in\/live\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/petrolnews.in\/live\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/petrolnews.in\/live\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38446"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/petrolnews.in\/live\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38446\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/petrolnews.in\/live\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/38447"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/petrolnews.in\/live\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38446"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/petrolnews.in\/live\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=38446"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/petrolnews.in\/live\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38446"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![](\"https:\/\/images.bhaskarassets.com\/web2images\/521\/2026\/09\/14\/4d8826db-72a9-47a9-baef-8a1add401b7d_1789381783935.jpg\")
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