Nearly two years after it was bombed by the Indian Air Force, the internationally proscribed terror group, Jaish-e-Mohammed, has reopened its training camp in Balakot. The JeM terror facility was “inaugurated” by Maulana Abdul Rauf Asghar, de facto head of the outfit on Thursday.
The IAF deep strike inside Pakistan in February 2019 was in response to the Pulwama attack by the JeM in which 40 paramilitary troops were killed. It marked a policy shift in India’s response where, for the first-time air power was used to strike at terror training camps on the Pakistani mainland.
JeM is formally led by now-incapacitated Maulana Masood Azhar, who has been formally listed as an international terrorist by the 1728 committee of the UN Security Council. The JeM is already on the UN ban list. The terror camp was re-launched amid a frenzied chanting of anti-India slogans, which also personally targeted Prime Minister Narendra Modi, video footage of the event exclusively available with IndiaNarrative.com revealed.
The sound of ceaseless gunfire added to the cacophony during the event. Analysts point out that the re-emergence of the training camp in Balakot will be a big blow to Pakistan, which is already on the grey-list of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF). In case it is black-listed, Pakistan, whose economy is already in free-fall is expected to face further international financial isolation. Adding momentum to its Pakistan-centred counter-terror drive, India has decided to formally ask Pakistan to share details of the terrorists the Pulwama attack, the Hindustan is reporting. India’s National Investigating Agency (NIA) has nailed seven perpetrators of the attack, including Maulana Masood Azhar, his brothers Abdul Rauf Asghar and Ibrahim Athar, and his cousin Ammar Alvi, in a formal request to Pakistan, which is under preparation.
Three other Pakistanis who came to India to execute the attack– Ismail alias Saifullah, Athar’s son Umar Farooq, Kamran, both killed in encounters with security forces after the Pulwama attack, are part of the draft. Ismail is believed to be hiding in Kashmir, the report said. The document is expected to be compiled by the end of the month. Once MHA finalises the document, which the people said will be done by the end of the month.
“It’s first such judicial request being sent to Pakistan in the Pulwama attack seeking its cooperation,” HT quoted a senior government official as saying. India is also seeking details of communications of the listed individuals among themselves including WhatsApp chats, voice notes and Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) calls made from and to Pakistan, and information on persons seen in photographs and videos recovered from the phone of Umar Farooq, the mastermind of the Pulwama attack showing different stages of preparation of the Pulwama attack, the official added.
