Masood Azhar’s Jaish-e-Mohammad joins top terror club

NEW DELHI: Long before the Uri attack, the Jaish-e-Mohammad had carried out multiple terror strikes in Jammu and Kashmir but none were as audacious as Sunday’s attack. After the Uri strike, JeM has joined the league of top terror groups like LeT and Al Qaeda, especially as the attack followed the one on the Pathankot airbase on January 2.

In contrast, the Lashkar-e-Taiba, considered the biggest active terror group in the subcontinent, has failed to demonstrate its striking capability post Mumbai 26/11 as it has come under various international sanctions. Its groups of militants who infiltrated into India recently were either killed or arrested.

The most recent case was that of 22-year-old Bahadur Ali, a resident of Lahore who was caught along the border. Another case in point is that of Naved Ali, arrested from Udhampur last year after he attacked a BSF convoy. With largest presence in the valley, LeT has mostly confined itself to target convoy of security forces instead of attacking their bases, say security agencies.

Counter-intelligence operatives who spoke to ET on the condition of anonymity said, “Lashkar has been on the radar always and after the 26/11 attacks, we have heightened our vigil on the group as unlike Jaish, Lashkar targeted cities. JeM’s action was confined to the valley.”

JeM has been constantly upping its ante inside the valley after 2012 under the banner of ‘Afzal Guru Squad.’ Set up in 2000 by Maulana Masood Azhar — released by the NDA government, after the hijacking of Indian Airlines flight to Kandahar 1999 — JeM was once isolated within Pakistan but appears to have got a new lease of life including support from the ISI. The group was also responsible for an attack on an Army camp in Kupwara’s Tangdar area in November last year.