Masood Azhar’s brother plotted IC-814 hijack at just 24

NEW DELHI: Mufti Abdul Rauf Asghar, the operational chief of Jaish-e-Mohammad, was just 24 years old when he masterminded the hijacking of IC-814 Indian Airlines commercial flight in 1999, which led India to finally release his elder brother Maulana Masood Azhar.

Since then, Asghar, who is among India’s top five ‘most wanted’ terrorists, has planned every major Jaish attack in India – including the 2001 fidayeen attacks on J&K assembly and Parliament, 2016 Pathankot IAF base attack, attacks on Nagrota and Kathua camps and the recent Pulwama attack that claimed the lives of 40 CRPF personnel , on direct orders from Azhar.

According to Indian intelligence agencies, Asghar takes virtually every decision for JeM in the absence of Azhar w ho has not been keeping well . When JeM went underground for a few years following assassination attempts on then Pakistan president Pervez Musharraf, it was Asghar who spearheaded the reorganization of the outfit by travelling to Afghanistan and meeting the Taliban.


He is known for openly claiming responsibility for the fidayeen attacks in India and is active on social media. In a video uploaded on rangnoor.com, Asghar claimed responsibility for the Pathankot attack and later in December 2017, he again owned up both Pathankot and Nagrota attacks while addressing a huge crowd inside a Bhawalpur mosque. In this address, Asghar promised to carry out a bigger attack than Pathankot in the coming months.

Asghar is in-charge of setting up terror camps in Pak-occupied Kashmir (PoK), and inside Pakistan including Balakot, which was hit by IAF air strikes last week , Manshera and Muzaffarabad. He also motivates the JeM cadres, liaises with the Pakistan government and ISI, prepares JeM’s propaganda material in the form of audio and video clips, arranging funds and making contacts with other terror outfits.

Apart from his brother (Masood Azhar), India is now pushing for including Asghar’s name too in United Nations Security Council’s list.

As reported by TOI, Asghar used to regularly visit Balakot terror camp in Pakistan to motivate the recruits and oversee the attacks from the control room.