New Delhi: The Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) led by Maulana Masood Azhar, after losing a number of its top leaders in encounters with the security forces, is bringing in trained terrorists from Afghanistan and also looking at closer links with the Taliban and the Afghanistan-based Haqqani Network, highly-placed government sources said.
JeM terrorists, after training in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied-Kashmir (PoK), have begun going to Afghanistan for advanced training. Many went to the Afghan "finishing schools" after learning their trade in the Balakot training camp in Pakistan, destroyed by the Indian Air Force on February 26.
A 15-member delegation of Taliban and Haqqani network leaders called on Masood Azhar in Bahawalpur, the JeM headquarters, on February 15. The Taliban were also part of the United Jihad Council's annual meeting in January this year.
In the first hundred days of 2019, security forces in Jammu and Kashmir have killed 27 JeM cadres, 19 of them after the attack on the Central Reserve Policemen in Pulwama on February 14. Over 40 policemen died in the Pulwama suicide bomber attack.
Among those killed by the security forces are Mohammed Umar, a relative of Masood Azhar himself, and very active in the Ghazni area for a long while. Security forces killed him on March 29.
Another relative of the Maulana, Usman Haider, active in Kandahar, was killed in Tral on October 30 last year. Both helped in setting up meetings between Taliban leaders in Afghanistan and Ibrahim Azhar, the Maulana's brother, and the leader of the group that hijacked IC-814, the Indian Airlines plane from Kathmandu to Kandahar in December 1999. The Indian government of those days was forced to release the Maulana and two others; the hijackers had threatened to blow up the plane and the passengers if her were not returned.
Two others-- Abdul Rashid Ghazi, known for making Improvised Explosive Devices or IEDs, and Yasir-- have moved to Jammu and Kashmir from Afghanistan. They have brought with them US-made M4 carbines and telescopic sights to target security forces in the state.
The "transfer" of Afghanistan-based JeM men to Jammu and Kashmir is a worry for India. It is clear that Pakistan is involved. India hopes that the United States, sources said, will also look into it.
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