Afghanistan’s Taiban authorities on Wednesday firmly rejected media studies concerning the presence of Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) chief Masood Azhar within the war-torn nation, saying such terrorist organisations can function on Pakistan’s soil and even beneath official patronage.
The Taliban-led interim Afghan authorities spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid made the strongly-worded remarks after a bit of Pakistani media reported about Azhar’s alleged presence in Afghanistan. They claimed that Pakistan has additionally despatched a letter with demand handy him over to Islamabad.
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“We have written a one-page letter to the Afghan foreign ministry, asking them to locate, report and arrest Masood Azhar, as we believe that he is hiding somewhere in (eastern Nangarhar province) Afghanistan,” The News reported on Tuesday, quoting a prime Pakistani international ministry official.
Mujahid in an interview with Afghanistan’s ToloNews stated that he has seen the information within the media. “But this is not true. Nobody has made such a demand from us,” Mujahid stated.
“Jaish-e-Mohammad chief is not in Afghanistan. Such organisations can operate on Pakistan’s soil and even under official patronage,” Mujahid stated. “We’ll not allow anyone to use Afghanistan’s soil against any other country.”
Azhar is a fugitive launched by India in change for passengers of the hijacked Indian Airlines aircraft IC-814 in 1999. He was serving a jail time period in India for kidnappings of Western vacationers within the nation.
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After his launch in 1999, Azhar shaped the JeM and scripted many audacious terror strikes in India.
Pakistan has banned the JeM which is accused by India of a number of terrorist assaults, together with the Pulwama assault in February 2019, which introduced Pakistan and India to the brink of a nuclear change.
In May 2019, the United Nations designated Azhar a “global terrorist” after China lifted its maintain on a proposal to blacklist the Pakistan-based JeM chief, a decade after New Delhi approached the world physique for the primary time on the difficulty.
The UN committee listed Azhar on May 1, 2019 as being related to Al-Qaeda for “participating in the financing, planning, facilitating, preparing, or perpetrating of acts or activities by, in conjunction with, under the name of, on behalf of, or in support of”, “supplying, selling or transferring arms and related material to”, “recruiting for”, “otherwise supporting acts or activities of”, and “other acts or activities indicating association with” the JeM.
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