JeM Founder Masood Azhar Goes ‘Missing’ Ahead Of FATF Meet To Decide Pakistan’s Gray List Status

With the crucial Financial Action Task Force (FATF) meet beginning in Paris from Monday (17 February), the founder of the internationally banned terrorist group, Jaish-e-Mohammed leader Masood Azhar has gone missing along with his family, reports Wion.

Economically embattled Pakistan, told the global terror financing watchdog FATF that the terrorist has gone missing as it meets to decide whether the Islamic nation stays in or out of the 'Grey List'.

The Grey list is expected to make it difficult for Pakistan to get financial aid from institutions like the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the World Bank, the Asian Development Bank, and the European Union.

This news also comes just days before the first anniversary of Balakot air strike carried out by Indian Air Force to destroy terror training camps in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa on 26 February last year.

It has been claimed that Azhar has suffered a renal failure and requires regular dialysis which is being taken care of in a Pakistan military hospital.

A few days ago, Ehsanullah Ehsan, the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) spokesperson, who was responsible for the terror attacks on Malala Yousafzai and the Peshawar Army School, had escaped from a military prison.

Earlier this week, Pakistan sentenced Mumbai terror mastermind Hafiz Saeed, for five and a half years in prison in connection with two terror financing cases. But experts felt that it was merely an attempt by Pakistan to create the right optics before the FATF.

According to foreign affairs expert Sushant Sareen, “The Hafiz Saeed conviction is classical Pakistani deceit and deception.”

Writing for the Observer Research Foundation (ORF), Sareen claims, Saeed will appeal in the High Court and will be granted bail. Or the army may ask him to stay in prison for a few years.

Incidentally, Saeed is still the leader of the banned Islamic terror group Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) which according to experts is the para-military force of Pakistan’s Inter Service Intelligence (ISI).