Jaish-e-Mohammad chief Masood Azhar, who allegedly masterminded the attack on the Pathankot airbase, has been on the radar of the Indian security establishment since 1993 when he was a 25-year-old member of Harkat-ul-Mujahideen (HuM), India has told the United Nations Taliban/Al Qaeda Sanctions Committee. India’s draft note was sent to the Committee where China blocked New Delhi’s effort to declare Azhar a global terrorist.
India also told the U.N. panel that Azhar (48) was one of the handlers of terrorists who attacked the airbase in January this year and that his outfit received arms training from the Taliban.
The two-page note, sent by India to UN 1267 Taliban/al-Qaeda Sanctions Committee to proscribe Azhar as an international terrorist, says he first came to the notice of Indian authorities in 1993 when he tried to arrange money and recruits for Al-Itihaad Al-Islamiya, an Al Qaeda-aligned Somali terrorist group. Azhar was closely associated with HuM, another Pakistan-supported terrorist outfit and visited Somalia during that time and facilitated recruitment of Yemeni mercenaries to Somalia.
India has conveyed to the world body that he and his terrorist group JeM have continuously engineered terror attacks against India, the latest instance being the strike at Pathankot. “The attack was engineered by terrorists belonging to JeM and credible evidence has emerged that their handlers were senior leaders of JeM, including Masood Azhar,” said the Draft List Entry submitted in the U.N.
