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In the aftermath of Operation Sindoor, the Pakistan terror groups faced plenty of casualties. While over 100 terrorists were killed, their headquarters, launchpads and training facilities were also destroyed.
Now, with the Pakistan establishment helping terror groups such as the Lashkar-e-Toiba and Jaish-e-Muhammad rebuild their facilities, it is also important for them to keep the chiefs safe. In the aftermath of the Indian retaliatory strikes and also the recent Operation Mahadev, the morale of the cadre is extremely down.
In such an event, the establishment has given top-notch security to Lashkar-e-Toiba chief, Hafiz Saeed and Jaish-e-Muhammad head, Masood Azhar. Intelligence officials say that when compared to the two groups, the morale of the Jaish-e-Muhammad terrorists is far worse than compared of the Lashkar-e-Toiba.
This is to do with several factors. If one looks at Operation Sindoor, it was the Jaish-e-Muhammad which was hit the hardest. The first the Indian armed forces took down the Jaish-e-Muhammad headquarters at Bahawalpur. Secondly, the strike also killed 10 members of Azhar’s family, including his brother Rauf Asghar.
While Azhar cannot make any public appearances now since the Indian agencies are tracking him very closely, the ISI has shifted his location multiple times after Operation Sindoor. For nearly ten days, he was kept at a safe house in Rawalpindi. In the wake of this, Pakistan’s former Foreign Minister, Bilawal Bhutto, had said that Azhar was taken to Afghanistan.
While moving him to multiple locations to keep him off the radar, the ISI has ensured that he is nowhere near Bahawalpur. Moreover, the Jaish-e-Muhammad has also decided not to rebuild its headquarters at this location. They are chasing a location that is closer to an army establishment in Pakistan.
Azhar, at the time of the strike, was not present at the Bahawalpur facility that was known as Jamia Subhan Allah. He was at the Jamia Usman O Ali, which is a Mosque located in a populated part of the city. This is where his old residence is, and it is near a hospital. However, immediately after the attack, he was moved out of his old residence.
He was even taken to Gilgit-Baltistan, which is nearly 1,200 kilometres away from the Bahawalpur facility. He remained at Skardu. The Intelligence agencies tracking him learnt that he was at this place for close to 20 days. During this period, he was made to shuttle between two different mosques.
It was at the same time that he had been housed in a Madrasa, a government guest house. Later on, he was moved to a private guest house before being taken out of Skardu.
Azhar also had a brief stay at Peshwar, the same place he was housed following the Balakot air strike, during which a Jaish-e-Muhammad facility had been hit.
The ISI is also keeping a close guard on Hafiz Saeed and Hizbul Mujahideen chief Syed Salahuddin, who are believed to be housed in a safe house in Islamabad.
With Azhar going underground, his cadres are losing morale. In order to keep their resolve and spirits high, some members of the Jaish-e-Muhammad have been circulating old audio clips. They are passing it off as the latest ones and are falsely claiming that Azhar has not run away and remains housed in Bahawalpur itself.
Azhar is, without a doubt, one of the most dangerous terrorists in the world. He is responsible for multiple deadly attacks in India. The recent one was the attack at Pulwama. In order to secure his release from an Indian jail, his men had orchestrated the IC-814 hijack. Following his release, he founded the Jaish-e-Muhammad, and one of their first attacks was on the Indian Parliament.
