While welcoming the decision of the Sanctions Committee of the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) to designate Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) leader Masood Azhar as a global terrorist, the US State Department asked Pakistan to deliver on its commitment to curb activities of terror organisations in that country.
“We expect all countries to uphold these obligations. The United States welcomes the addition of Masood Azhar to the UN 1267 ISIL and al-Qaida Sanctions list. We appreciate Pakistani Prime Minister Khan’s stated commitment that Pakistan, for the sake of its own future, will not allow the operation of militant and terrorist groups from its territory,” said the US State Department spokesperson.
But it is not easy for Pakistan to forsake terrorism or outfits like Jaish-e-Muhammad. Jaish chief Maulana Masood Azhar continues to draw massive crowds in Pakistan, though already his organisation is a proscribed terror outfit.
According to Dawn he addressed thousands of his supporters by phone in Muzaffarabad last week. “This first public appearance of sorts in years of the leader of an outlawed organisation, Jaish-e-Mohammad, raises questions about the state’s policy towards militancy,” said the report.
The function was organised for the release of a book written by Kashmiri terrorist Mohammed Afzal Guru. In the address, Azhar called upon Pakistani authorities to lift restrictions on ‘jihad’.
According to the report, the police provided full security to the event which was also addressed by Mufti Abdul Rauf Asghar, the younger brother of Masood Azhar, who too was closely associated with the banned outfit.
The group’s newspaper, Zarb-i-Momin, is widely circulated in Pakistan. Despite his group being banned, Azhar was never detained and lived freely in his home in Southern Punjab where the JeM has strong roots. Audio cassettes and CDs of Azhar’s speeches are sold like hot cakes.
Within Pakistan also there is widespread resentment about the way these terror outfits are operating with impunity. “The resurfacing of Masood Azhar and other militant leaders exposes the duplicity of our policy on militancy. The country has paid dearly for using militancy as a tool of our regional policy in the past and it is high time that it is stopped,” the Dawn report said.
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