Pakistan Foreign Minister, Shah Mahmood Qureshi, admitted that Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) chief Masood Azhar is “unwell to the extent that he can’t leave his house”. Media reports also stated that Azhar is undergoing regular dialysis for renal failure at a Pakistan military hospital in Rawalpindi. Interestingly, the statement of Qureshi and then these media reports that too coming in the wake of air strike in Balakot appears to be suggesting that ‘JeM chief is no more’.
According to a senior official, Masood Azhar is undergoing treatment and is severely unwell, reported PTI. Moreover, nobody has seen him or heard him since the February 26 air strike. Earlier, whenever India had taken any pre-emptive actions against terrorism, the ‘head of terror organisation’ came out all guns blazing against India. However, he seems to be in “deep sleep” this time and is really ill in a hospital. Is it so or Pakistan is laying the ground to announce his death?
There is no doubt in the fact that JeM camp has been hit by the air-strike and it has been substantiated by Masood Azhar’s brother Maulana Ammar in a rally in Peshawar on February 28. Speaking at the rally, Ammar stated that the targets that were bombed in the air strikes were not the safe houses of Pakistani Army or ISI but the centers where recruits were trained for Jihad in Kashmir. Maulana also added that these were the centres of Jihad preaching and by attacking the seminary; India ensured that a Jihad should be restarted and should not be stopped till Kashmir is taken over.