Masood Azhar

Mohammad Masood Azhar Alvi (born 10 July or 7 August 1968) is a radical Islamist and terrorist, being the founder and leader of the Pakistan-based terrorist organisation Jaish-e-Mohammed, active mainly in the Pakistani-administered portion of the Kashmir region.

His actions are not limited to the South Asian region; for instance, BBC News described him as "the man who brought jihad to Britain."

Azhar was born in Bahawalpur, Punjab, Pakistan on 10 July 1968 (although some sources list his birth date as 7 August 1968 ) as the third of 11 children—five sons and six daughters.

Azhar's father, Allah Bakhsh Shabbir, was the headmaster at a government-run school as well as a cleric with Deobandi leanings and his family operated a dairy and poultry farm.

Azhar dropped out of mainstream school after class 8 and joined the Jamia Uloom Islamic school, from where he graduated out in 1989 as an alim and was soon appointed as a teacher. The madrasa was heavily involved with Harkat-ul-Ansar and Azhar was subsequently assumed under its folds, after being enrolled for a jihad training camp at Afghanistan.

Despite failing to complete the course; he joined the Soviet–Afghan War and retired after suffering injuries.

Thereafter, he was chosen as the head of Harkat's department of motivation.

He was also entrusted with the editorial responsibilities for the Urdu-language magazine Sad'e Mujahidin and the Arabic-language Sawte Kashmir.

Azhar later became the general secretary of Harkat-ul-Ansar and visited many international locations to recruit, to raise funds and to spread the message of Pan-Islamism.

Among his destinations were Zambia, Abu Dhabi, Saudi Arabia, Mongolia, the United Kingdom and Albania.

Azhar confessed that in 1993 he traveled to Nairobi, Kenya to meet with leaders of al-Itihaad al-Islamiya, an al-Qaeda-aligned Somali group, who had requested money and recruits from Harkat-ul-Mujahideen (HuM).

Indian intelligence officials believe that he made at least three trips to Somalia and that he also helped bring Yemeni mercenaries to Somalia.

In August 1993 Azhar entered the United Kingdom for a speaking, fundraising, and recruitment tour.

His message of jihad was given at some of Britain's most prestigious Islamic institutions including the Darul Uloom Bury seminary, Zakariya Mosque, Madina Masjid in Blackburn and Burnley, and Jamia Masjid.

His message was that "substantial proportion of the Koran had been devoted to 'killing for the sake of Allah' and that a substantial volume of sayings of the Islamic prophet Muhammad were on the issue of jihad."

In 1993, the militant organisation Harkat-ul-Ansar was established and Masood served as its general secretary.

CIA also stated that Hua had abducted at least 13 persons of which 12 were from western countries in the period from early 1994 to 1998.

In early 1994, Azhar travelled to Srinagar under a fake identity, to ease tensions between Harkat-ul-Ansar's feuding factions of Harkat-ul-Jihad al-Islami and Harkat-ul-Mujahideen.

India arrested him in February from Khanabal near Anantnag and imprisoned him for his terrorist activities with the groups.

On being arrested, he said "Soldiers of Islam have come from 12 countries to liberate Kashmir. We will answer your carbines with rocket launchers" He was imprisoned at the Badami Bagh Cantonment in Srinagar, Tihar Jail in Delhi, and lastly the Kot Balwal Jail in Jammu (from where he would eventually be released).

In July, 1995, six foreign tourists were kidnapped in Jammu and Kashmir.

The kidnappers, referring to themselves as Al-Faran (a pseudonym of the Harkat-ul-Mujahideen), included the release of Masood Azhar among their demands.

One of the hostages managed to escape whilst another was found in a decapitated state in August.

The others were never seen or heard from since 1995.

FBI had interrogated Azhar multiple times during his jail-stay on the locus of the kidnappings.

In 1998, U.S.'s Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) in its report stated, "HuA, an Islamic extremist organisation that Pakistan supports in its proxy war against Indian forces in Kashmir, increasingly is using terrorist tactics against Westerners and random attacks on civilians that could involve Westerners to promote its pan-Islamic agenda."

Four years later, in December 1999, an Indian Airlines Flight 814 (IC814) en route from Kathmandu in Nepal to New Delhi was hijacked and eventually landed in Kandahar, Afghanistan after being flown to multiple locations.

Kandahar at that time was controlled by the Taliban, which was supported by Pakistan's ISI.

Masood Azhar was one of the three militants demanded to be released in exchange for freeing the hostages.

Subsequently, Azhar was freed by the Indian government in a decision criticised by many including Ajit Doval as a "diplomatic failure", and that no one worth any consequence was contacted either by the (then) foreign minister (Jaswant Singh) or the (then) foreign secretary (Lalit Mansingh), and as a consequence, the Indian ambassador could not even get inside the Abu Dhabi airport.

The hijackers of IC814 were led by Masood Azhar's brother, Ibrahim Athar.

His release from Kot Bhalwal jail was supervised by an IPS officer, S P Vaid.

His younger brother Abdul Rauf Asghar had planned this attack.

Once Masood Azhar was handed over to the hijackers, they fled to Pakistani territory.

Pakistan had said the hijackers would be arrested if found.

The Pakistani government also previously indicated that Azhar would be allowed to return home since he did not face any charges there.

Shortly after his release, Azhar made a public address to an estimated 10,000 people in Karachi.

He proclaimed, "I have come here because this is my duty to tell you that Muslims should not rest in peace until we have destroyed India," vowing to liberate the Kashmir region from Indian rule.

Azhar made contacts in Britain who helped to provide training and logistical support the terror plots including "7/7, 21/7 and the attempt in 2006 to smuggle liquid bomb-making substances on to transatlantic airlines."

On 1 May 2019, Masood Azhar was listed as an international terrorist by the United Nations Security Council.