New Delhi: Authorities at the Jaish-e-Mohammed’s Jama-e-Masjid Subhan Allah seminary, Bahawalpur, which was bombed in an Indian Air Force (IAF) strike under Operation Sindoor in May this year, have thrown open the on-campus swimming pool for classes, Jaish-e-Mohammed has announced on its social media feeds.
The announcement indicates that the estimated 600 students who study at the Bahawalpur seminary have resumed regular activities.
As a part of the complex, Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) militants have also occasionally used the pool, while waiting in Bahawalpur for orders before heading towards their operational theatres, such as Kashmir.
Four key members of the networks that carried out the 2019 Pulwama attack on Indian police forces—Muhammad Umar Farooq, Talha Rasheed Alvi, Muhammad Ismail Alvi, and Rasheed Billa—photographed themselves at the pool before heading to Kashmir, photos available with ThePrint reveal.
“Even though reopening a swimming pool might sound like a small thing,” an Indian government official said, “it is a big draw for poor children in the Bahawalpur area who form the base from which the Jaish recruits its cadre. It is also a signal that the Inter-Services Intelligence Directorate has no intention of shutting down terror-linked groups, despite the war.”
The JeM leadership has become increasingly public in the weeks since the military hostilities between India and Pakistan in May that lasted four days, and Emir Masood Azhar Alvi has even released records of his speeches, vowing to destroy the Ayodhya Ram Mandir.
In another speech, delivered days after the IAF strike, Azhar earlier bragged that the organisation spent resources of its own on the funeral rites for his slain elder sister, her husband, a nephew and his wife, a niece, and five children in his extended family.
The organisation has since held several rallies and events across Pakistan, but has been careful to minimise its media exposure, Indian government sources familiar with the group say. In a 9 June message, Jaish-e-Mohammed instructed its entire cadre to stop making videos of their activities, saying it violated religious laws.
In June, JeM also observed funeral rites for Abdul Aizaz Isar, a cleric known for incendiary speeches, such as calls for Ghazwa-e-Hind or a holy war against India. Israr was in charge of the Markaz Taleem (centre for education) in Gilgit-Baltistan and headed its operations.
Jamia Masjid Subhan Allah Seminary was closed after precision missile strikes by the Indian military levelled a part of the complex on 7 May. The strike was part of Operation Sindoor, which targeted the functioning headquarters of JeM in retaliation for the 22 April Pahalgam terror attack in which at least 26 people, mostly tourists, were killed.
Govt control over Bahawalpur seminary
Following the Pulwama crisis in 2019, the interior ministry of the Pakistani province of Punjab had announced that it “has taken over the control of a campus comprising Madrassatul Sabir and Jamia-e-Masjid Subhanallah in Bahawalpur to manage its affairs”. The campus will provide free, secular education to students up to Class 6, as well as clerical Dars-e-Nizami courses, equivalent to the graduation and post-graduation education levels, the ministry had added.
“Locals of Bahawalpur give generous donations to support the madrassah and also donate edibles, including rice, for the resident students,” a media report from the time had stated.
Soon after, officials insisted that the seminary had no connection with any terrorist group. A day later, Bahawalpur Deputy Commissioner Shozeb Saeed had told visiting journalists that it was just a “routine seminary, having no links with the Jaish-e-Mohammed”. “Some 600 students are studying here, and none of them is associated with any banned organisation or involved in any terror activity,” he had said.
The 18-acre land, which encompassed the Jama-e-Masjid Subhan Allah seminary, was then purchased in 2019 by Azhar’s brother, Abdul Rauf Rasheed Alvi, for a stated sum of Pakistani Rs 1.5 million, or Indian Rs 70-80 lakh, at the time. The complex was to house a hostel capable of accommodating 12,000 students, sports facilities, and prayer areas.
Although JeM is a banned organisation in Pakistan, and the 1974-born Rauf faces sanctions imposed by the United States, local authorities have never prosecuted him. On its part, China has repeatedly blocked efforts to get Rauf designated as a terrorist by the United Nations.
Former Punjab law minister Rana Sanaullah Khan had said in 2016 that the Jamaat-ud-Dawa and Jaish-e-Mohammed “have been declared proscribed organisations, and they can no longer carry out any activity in the province”. However, he ruled out any illegal action by the group’s leaders, pointing to their links with Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence: “How can you prosecute a group with whom the state, itself, has been involved?”
(Edited by Madhurita Goswami)
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