New Delhi: The Taliban government has rejected Pakistan’s claims that Masood Azhar, the founder of Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM), is operating from Afghanistan. A senior Afghan Foreign Ministry official said Azhar was not in the country, according to a PTI report.
Kabul also reiterated that Afghan territory would not be permitted for use in attacks against other countries.
Azhar remains wanted in India in connection with several major terrorist attacks, including the 2001 Parliament attack, the 2008 Mumbai attacks, the attack on the Pathankot air base in 2016 and the 2019 Pulwama bombing in Pulwama.
Pakistan has for years maintained that Azhar fled to Afghanistan amid international pressure to crack down on militant financing and infrastructure. Islamabad’s anti-terrorism efforts and financial safeguards are set to be reviewed by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), the Paris-based global watchdog responsible for combating money laundering and terrorist financing, in its upcoming plenary.
Pakistan was placed on the FATF’s grey list in 2018 and remained there until 2022. The FATF grey list identifies countries with weak defenses against money laundering, terrorist financing, and proliferation financing.
Pakistan’s concerns involve its failure to adequately disrupt financing associated with the JeM and the Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), as well as weaknesses in enforcing financial sanctions against individuals designated by the United Nations.
To secure its removal from the grey list, Pakistan was required to undertake a series of measures, including action against JeM and LeT and their affiliated organisations, as well as pursuing convictions against militant leaders.
In 2025, Pakistan’s former minister of foreign affairs Bilawal Bhutto Zardari claimed that Islamabad had no information of where Azhar was located. He said in an interview that Pakistan would be “happy to” arrest him if India provided information showing he was on Pakistani territory.
Bhutto, who leads the Pakistan People’s Party part of the country’s governing coalition, also suggested in an Al Jazeera interview that Saeed was not a free man in Pakistan and that Azhar could be in Afghanistan.
The United Nations designated Azhar a global terrorist in 2019. In 1994, he travelled to Srinagar using a false identity to ease tensions between rival factions of the Harkat-ul-Ansar — the Harkat-ul-Jihad al-Islami and the Harkat-ul-Mujahideen. Indian authorities arrested him in February near Khanabal in Anantnag and imprisoned him for his militant activities with the groups.
He was then held at Badami Bagh Cantonment in Srinagar, Tihar Jail in Delhi, and eventually, Kot Balwal Jail in Jammu, from where he was released in 1999 in exchange for passengers and crew members held by hijackers after the seizure of Indian Airlines Flight IC-814, which was ultimately taken to Kandahar, Afghanistan.
At the time, Kandahar was under Taliban control, with the group receiving support from Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence agency. Pakistan detained Masood Azhar for a year after the 2001 Parliament attack under international pressure, but he was never formally charged and was released in December 2002.
He was later linked to the 2008 Mumbai attacks, though Pakistan denied arresting him and said it did not know his whereabouts.
His whereabouts has remained a particularly contentious issue between India and Pakistan. India has repeatedly demanded that Pakistan hand over Azhar, as well as Hafiz Saeed, an LeT founder. New Delhi has accused Pakistan of allowing militant leaders to operate from its territory, while Islamabad has denied or disputed such allegations.
(Edited by Chingkheinganbi Mayengbam)
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