The Taliban regime has dismissed Pakistan’s repeated claims that Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) founder Masood Azhar is operating from Afghanistan, with a senior Afghan Foreign Ministry official confirming that he is not in the country.
Azhar remains wanted in India for major terror attacks, including the 2001 Parliament strike, the 2008 Mumbai attacks, the 2016 Pathankot airbase assault, and the 2019 Pulwama bombing. Islamabad had claimed that Azhar had escaped across the Durand line in May, 2019 and has since then remained at large. In September 2022, the Taliban government spokesperson had denied that Azhar was in Afghanistan or that Pakistan had sent any formal communication regarding his presence in Afghanistan.
The key reasons included its failure to curb terror financing, particularly to Jaish-e-Mohmmed and Lashkar-e-Taiba terror networks besides weak implementation of financial sanctions on UN-designated persons, people tracking FATF’s actions said. After its exit from the grey list and decrease in international pressure and spotlight, Pakistan has backslided on assurances it had made to FATF to exit the grey list, the people cited above said. Pakistan has failed to take steps to arrest Azhar claiming that he was not in that country, they said.
