Washington DC: The Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Muhammed has threatened attacks on the Ram temple in Ayodhya and called on Muslims in India to “mentally prepare themselves for jihad,” online feeds linked to the terror outfit reported Friday. The message, issued to celebrate the victory of Islamist groups in Syria, follows similar messages issued by the al-Qaeda unit responsible for operations against India, and the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan.
“Even today,” the message states, “the stones of the Babri Masjid are casting a curse on those who pray to them, and are waiting for the holy warriors who will come to liberate them.”
The message comes just days after internationally-proscribed terrorist commander Masood Azhar Alvi gave his first public speech in over two decades, hailing jihadists in Syria and threatening to escalate violence in Kashmir. India’s Ministry of External Affairs noted that the speech demonstrated duplicity by Pakistan, which had claimed Azhar had fled protective custody in the country, and was hiding in Afghanistan.
The message refers to the capture of the Syrian city of Hama, which took place on 5 December 2024. “Today we celebrate the victory of the people of faith in Syria, who liberated the city of Hama yesterday. We appeal to people to remember the mujahideen of Syria in their prayers, as they remember the warriors of Kashmir and Palestine. The Hindus have succeeded in installing idols in the Babri Masjid because of the negligence of the Muslims,” it reads.
“Every single fallen stone, though, belongs to Allah. When people turn these stones into idols, and begin to worship them, then Allah sends his wrath upon them.
“Every Muslim in India also should be mentally preparing himself for jihad, a task that can be undertaken at all places and times,” the message continues.
It goes on to say, “All that has to be done is expel fear from your minds, and prepare yourself for your meeting with Allah. Every Muslim must also prepare his body for jihad, by being healthy and strong.”
Leaders of Jaish-e-Muhammed have made repeated references to the Babri Masjid-Ram Janmabhoomi issue in speeches over the years, and vowed vengeance for the demolition of the mosque by Hindu nationalists in December, 1992.
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Multiple attacks
The Jaish-e-Muhammed had attempted to bomb the temple site in the summer of 2005, but all five members of the suicide squad were shot dead. The men, police records show, had been armed with assault rifles, grenades and suicide vests. Four residents of Mendhar and Saharanpur were convicted for their role in facilitating the attack, but are currently on bail pending appeal. One of the four was acquitted by the Allahabad High Court in September 2023 for lack of evidence.
A separate trial of a West Bengal man alleged to have assisted the attackers cross the Bangladesh-India border ended with an acquittal, with the Delhi High Court observing that the prosecution evidence was “not believable”
The main coordinator of the attack was reported to have escaped across the Line of Control in 2007.
The United States, declassified documents show, had offered technical assistance in the case, but the Government of India declined the proposal.
Earlier, the demolition of the Babri Masjid had led a group of Islamist activists to form India’s first urban terror network. Led by Lashkar-e-Taiba linked Unani-medicine practitioner Abdul Karim alias ‘Tunda’, the network carried out multiple retaliatory bombings between 1993 and 1997.
The controversial pro–Khalistan activist Gurpatwant Singh Pannun—who United States prosecutors say was subjected to an assassination attempt by India’s intelligence services earlier this year—recently threatened to “shake the foundations of Ayodhya, birthplace of the violent Hindutva ideology”.
Fugitive commander
Even though the Jaish-e-Muhammed and Azhar are listed as terrorists by the United Nations, the outfit has expanded and developed its sprawling seminary on the outskirts of the Pakistani city of Bahawalpur. The complex includes a mosque, assembly hall, multiple residential premises and classrooms for its estimated 600-plus students.
Sources of funding are unclear, but the Jaish-e-Muhammed is known to have close ties to other religious fundamentalist groups which operate openly, like the Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan and Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan.
Pakistan’s then foreign minister Bilawal Bhutto announced in 2022 that Azhar escaped to Afghanistan, ahead of an attempt by Pakistani authorities to declare him a proclaimed offender. The declaration was made even as Pakistan mounted a successful effort to be removed from a terror finance watchlist maintained by the multinational Financial Action Task Force.
Lashkar-e-Taiba leaders linked to the 26/11 were incarcerated in response to the threat of sanctions by the FATF, though none have been prosecuted on charges of participating in the attack. The Jaish-e-Muhammed was largely left unaffected by the crackdown, though, with Pakistan consistently refusing to investigate its involvement in a string of terrorist attacks, dating back to the storming of Parliament House in New Delhi in 2001.
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