#MasoodAzharDEAD is trending on social media and netizens are claiming that Azhar was badly injured after the IAF bombing and was taken to hospital in Pakistan, but the authorities are trying to hide it and will try to term it as a natural death.
New Delhi: Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) chief Masood Azhar is reportedly dead.
The report comes only a few days after the Indian Air Force (IAF) conducted air strikes on terror camps in Pakistan’s Balakot.
According to CNN-News18, the terror kingpin has died and the buzz on social media suggest that the 'most wanted' terrorist was killed in IAF’s air strike at Balakot. However, there is no confirmation from any government agency yet.
#MasoodAzharDEAD is trending on social media and netizens are claiming that Azhar was badly injured after the IAF bombing and was taken to hospital in Pakistan, but the authorities are trying to hide it and will try to term it as a natural death.
Earlier, there were reports that Azhar is suspected to be afflicted with renal failure and is under regular dialysis at an army hospital in Rawalpindi in Pakistan.
Pakistan foreign minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi also accepted on television that Azhar was in Pakistan and that he was not well. Another report from Islamabad said the the JeM founder was undergoing dialysis in a Pakistan army hospital. Reports claimed that after getting seriously injured in the air strike, Azhar died in hospital.
Also read: Pakistan accepts Jaish-e-Mohammed chief Masood Azhar is in its territory, but unwell
According to another report, Azhar's brother Maulana Ammar has admitted that the IAF hit training camps of the terror outfit in Balakot. In an audio message, Ammar can be heard saying that the Indian jets hit the training camp and inflicted significant damage on them.
Ammar added that the Indian aircraft did not bomb the safe house of any agency, nor did they attack any headquarter, but hit schools where students were being trained to understand jihad.
Azhar’s name first hit the headlines after he was released by India, following the hijack of Indian Airlines flight IC-814, which was taken to Kandahar in Afghanistan, where the Taliban held sway at that time. In January 2000, Azhar formed the JeM. The outfit grew into a massive headache for India with its name featuring in almost every terrorist attack in the early 2000s, including the attack on the Parliament in 2001. Azhar created the outfit with the aim to separate Kashmir from India.
It was his organisation that carried out a suicide attack on Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) troopers in Pulwama on February 14 in which 40 jawans were killed. It was the biggest terrorist attack on the Indian security forces in Jammu and Kashmir, and led India to retaliate with air strikes 12 days later.
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