Mufti Abdul Rauf Asghar, the commander of the Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) and brother of JeM chief Maulana Masood Azhar, was detained by authorities in Pakistan along with 44 others on Tuesday, 5 March.
The announcement about the arrests was made by Pakistan’s Minister of State for Interior Shehyar Khan Afridi at a press conference, in which he reportedly said that the action was not an outcome of international pressure.
Hammad Azhar is another name that has been highlighted among those who have been detained.
According to reports, these 44 “under-observation members of proscribed organisations have been taken in preventive detention for investigation”.
The crackdown comes after the militant group claimed responsibility for the deaths of at least 40 CRPF jawans in Jammu and Kashmir’s Pulwama on 14 February.
Previous Attacks
As per the website of the National Investigating Agency (NIA), Asghar is a ‘most wanted’ militant in India.
Asghar is also a prime accused in the 2016 Pathankot attack. Investigative agencies had reportedly collected voice data records to establish a clear link between Asghar and the attackers.
Asghar is also responsible for the hijacking of Indian Airlines flight IC 814 on 24 24 December 1999. He was also accused of executing the attack on Parliament on 13 December 2001.
According to India Today, the Chilean police arrested a Pakistani citizen named Mohammad Rauf, mistaking him for Asghar in 2011. It was only after a CBI team interrogated the man in Santiago, was it revealed that he was not Asghar.
India Today also reported that Asghar had issued a threat to India just nine days before the Pulwama attack.
In footage accessed by India Today, Asghar addressed a gathering inside a mosque near Bahawalpur, Pakistan and said that “people will again remember Pathankot and Nagrota”.
(With inputs from India Today)
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