IAF’s Target: Yusuf Azhar, Masood Azhar’s Brother-In-Law; Part Of Kandahar Hijacking, On Interpol List

Following today’s (26 February) early morning IAF raid on terrorist apparatus deep inside Pakistan, Foreign Secretary Vijay Gokhale revealed that the target of the operation was the Jaish-e-Mohammed’s (JeM) largest terror camp located at Balakot, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan. This was being run under the command of JeM supremo Masood Azhar’s brother-in-law Yusuf Azhar.

According to a report by ANI, Yusuf Azhar had also been involved in the hijacking of the Indian Airlines aircraft IC-814 in 1999, in which a number of hostages were taken to be used as a bargaining chip in negotiating the release of Masood Azhar and other jihadist terrorists in Indian custody.

Yusuf Azhar has also been on an Interpol lookout notice from 2000 onwards; the notice details that Azhar, also known as Mohammed Salim, hails from Karachi and is conversant in Urdu and Hindi. Another alias used by Azhar is Ustad Ghauri.

Gokhale had stated in his morning briefing that a number of fedayeen attackers were being trained at Yusuf Azhar’s camp with a view to conduct terrorist acts in India. Thus, pre-emptive action was taken and the IAF’s strike killed many terrorist recruits, trainers and senior commanders of JeM.

The foreign secretary also asserted that it was impossible for Pakistan to have not known about the presence of JeM training facilities in its territory. He pointed out that the JeM was a proscribed group even as per the United Nations (UN).