Operation Sindoor: 10 family members of Jaish chief Masood Azhar were killed in the Indian strikes against terror camps in Pakistan.
In a massive achievement, India neutralised Abdul Rauf Azhar — operational head of Jaish-e-Mohammed and mastermind of IC-814 hijacking, in Operation Sindoor in Pakistan’s Punjab province, officials said on Thursday.
In the Punjab province, the Indian armed forces carried out strikes in Bahawalpur and Muridke, destroying the headquarters of Jaish and Lashkar — the two terror outfits that have spilled Indian blood and inflicted injuries upon India for several years.
“Among those reported eliminated is Abdul Rauf Azhar — operational head of Jaishe-Mohammad, mastermind of the IC-814 hijacking, and a central figure in international jihadist networks,” the officials said.
Abdul Rauf Azhar is the brother of UN-designated terrorist Masood Azhar. Sources said yesterday that the Indian strikes had killed 10 family members of Masood Azhar in the Bahawalpur strikes, including his sister and brother-in-law. The Jaish terrorist released a statement confirming their elimination.
“Rauf Azhar’s role in orchestrating the IC-814 hijacking directly facilitated the release of Omar Saeed Sheikh, a key Al-Qaeda operative who went on to kidnap and murder Daniel Pearl, an American-Jewish journalist with the Wall Street Journal. Pearl’s brutal execution in 2002 shocked the conscience of the world and remains a defining example of the global threat posed by state-protected terror networks,” officials said.
Abdul Rauf Azhar was among those who hijacked the Indian Airlines plane IC-814 in December 1999 when en route from Kathmandu to Delhi. The flight was hijacked by five terrorists of the Harkat-ul-Mujahideen and taken to Taliban-controlled Afghanistan. Masood Azhar had to be released as part of the swap of passengers on the aircraft.
