Why Operation Sindoor is a blow to Jaish-e-Mohammed's family tree and the ISI's terror designs

As wreath-laying ceremonies were carried out for Hafiz Muhammed Jameel and Mohammed Yusuf Azhar, brothers-in-law of Jaish-e-Mohammed chief and terror mastermind Maulana Masood Azhar, there was visible distress within the terror machinery operating from Pakistan, counter-terror officials said. The Indian strike on Jaish top brass was actually a blow to the Pakistani spy agency, ISI. 

 

Azhar's sister, Sadeya Bibi, is married to Yusuf Azhar, the JeM commander at the Jaish camp killed in Operation Sindoor. "The Pakistan 'state and non-state' actors have been hit hard, which is why there is a flutter and visible discomfort in the Pakistan military, which is responding to the counterterror operations," said a senior security official. 

 

The JeM is a family-controlled group, and the ISI has kept it like that, said a counter-terrorism official, because if there are strong ideological leaders who are independent, they can go rogue. But when family members are involved, the leaders are automatically reined in, said the official.

 

The control to the family members of Jaish was spread out to relatives like Jameel and Azhar especially after Pakistan informed the Financial Action Task Force that the JeM founder was missing and seven out of the sixteen other UN-designated terrorists in Pakistan were dead. With the FATF crackdown looming large on Pakistan, the JeM was forced to create several verticals with Masood Azhar nominally “out of the picture” owing to the international pressure. The FATF action against Pakistan could not be prevented, as Pakistan continued to be on the grey list and was warned of stern action if it did not check the flow of money to terror groups.

 

While Azhar continued to shuttle between the JeM headquarters in Bahawalpur and Rawalpindi, where he was allegedly living in an ISI safe house, his younger brothers Mufti Abdul Rauf Asghar and Talha Saif were made the JeM chief and the overall in-charge of operations, respectively. 

 

The international pressure and FATF action had no impact on the ISI’s terror machinery, said officials. In fact, intelligence sources said the ISI even had some meetings with Asghar, where he was told that the spy agency had convinced the Pakistan government to gradually ease the restrictions on the JeM.

 

Azhar's elder brother, Mohammed Tahir Anwar, is in charge of arms training, and Mohammed Ibrahim Azhar, another brother, is in charge of Afghanistan operations. The youngest brother, Mohammed Ammar, is in charge of propaganda. 

 

India