20 Facts About Masood Azhar

Mohammad Masood Azhar Alvi is a radical Islamist and terrorist, being the founder and leader of the Pakistan-based terrorist organisation Jaish-e-Mohammed, active mainly in the Pakistani-administered portion of the Kashmir region.

Masood Azhar dropped out of mainstream school after class 8 and joined the Jamia Uloom Islamic school, from where he graduated out in 1989 as an alim and was appointed as a teacher.

The madrasa was heavily involved with Harkat-ul-Ansar and Masood Azhar was assumed under its folds, after being enrolled for a jihad training camp at Afghanistan.

Masood Azhar was entrusted with the editorial responsibilities for the Urdu-language magazine Sad'e Mujahidin and the Arabic-language Sawte Kashmir.

Masood Azhar later became the general secretary of Harkat-ul-Ansar and visited many international locations to recruit, to raise funds and to spread the message of Pan-Islamism.

Masood Azhar confessed that in 1993 he traveled to Nairobi, Kenya to meet with leaders of al-Itihaad al-Islamiya, an al-Qaeda-aligned Somali group, who had requested money and recruits from Harkat-ul-Mujahideen.

In 1993, the militant organisation Harkat-ul-Ansar was established and Masood Azhar served as its general secretary.

In early 1994, Masood Azhar travelled to Srinagar under a fake identity, to ease tensions between Harkat-ul-Ansar's feuding factions of Harkat-ul-Jihad al-Islami and Harkat-ul-Mujahideen.

Masood Azhar was one of the three militants demanded to be released in exchange for freeing the hostages.

Subsequently, Masood Azhar was freed by the Indian government in a decision criticised by many including Ajit Doval as a "diplomatic failure", and that no one worth any consequence was contacted either by the foreign minister or the foreign secretary, and as a consequence, the Indian ambassador could not even get inside the Abu Dhabi airport.

Once Masood Azhar was handed over to the hijackers, they fled to Pakistani territory.

The Pakistani government previously indicated that Masood Azhar would be allowed to return home since he did not face any charges there.

Shortly after his release, Masood Azhar made a public address to an estimated 10,000 people in Karachi.

Masood Azhar proclaimed, "I have come here because this is my duty to tell you that Muslims should not rest in peace until we have destroyed India," vowing to liberate the Kashmir region from Indian rule.

Masood Azhar planned to start a new outfit named as, Jaish-e-Mohammed.

Masood Azhar reportedly received assistance from Pakistan's spy agency Inter-Services Intelligence, the Taliban regime in Afghanistan, Osama bin Laden and multiple Sunni sectarian organisations based in Pakistan.

Pakistan's government denied it had arrested Masood Azhar and said it was unaware of his whereabouts On 26 January 2014, Azhar reappeared after a seclusion of two years.

Masood Azhar addressed a rally in Muzaffarabad, calling for the resumption of jihad in Kashmir.

Masood Azhar approved the attacks from the Pakistani Army Hospital where he is under protective custody.

China blocked US move to get Masood Azhar banned by UN in February 2017.