Jaish-e-Mohammad chief Masood Azhar not in Afghanan, can operate in Pakan, says Taliban

Afghanan’s Taiban government on Wednesday firmly rejected media reports about the presence of Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) chief Masood Azhar in the war-torn country, saying such terror organisations can operate on Pakan’s soil — and even under official patronage.
The Taliban’s interim Afghan government spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid made the strongly-worded remarks after a section of Pakani media reported about Azhar’s alleged presence in Afghanan. They claimed that Pakan has also sent a letter with a demand to hand him over to Islamabad.
“We have written a one-page letter to the Afghan foreign minry, asking them to locate, report and arrest Masood Azhar, as we believe that he is hiding somewhere in (eastern Nangarhar province) Afghanan,” The News reported on Tuesday, quoting a top Pakani foreign minry official.
Mujahid in an interview with Afghanan’s ToloNews said that he has seen the news in the media. “But this is not true. Nobody has made such a demand from us,” Mujahid said.
“Jaish-e-Mohammad chief is not in Afghanan. Such organisations can operate on Pakan’s soil – and even under official patronage,” Mujahid said. “We’ll not allow anyone to use Afghanan’s soil against any other country.”

Video: Islamic Emirate spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid denied that Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) chief Maulan Masood Azhar is in Afghanan, and said he is in Pakan.Pakani media reported that Pakan’s MoFA in a letter asked the Islamic Emirate to find and arrest Azhar.#TOLOnews pic.twitter.com/CSAWHddWP2
— TOLOnews (@TOLOnews) September 14, 2022
In a separate statement, the Minry of Foreign Affairs of the Taliban government also rejected media reports that JeM chief had sought refuge in Afghanan.
“We reiterate that the IEA (Islamic Emirate of Afghanan) does not allow any armed opposition in its territory to operate against any other country,” said Abdul Qahar Balkhi, the spokesman of the Minry of Foreign Affairs of the Taliban government.
“Also, we ask all parties to refrain from making baseless claims in such cases without documents and evidence,” he said, warning that such media claims can negatively affect bilateral relations.
Azhar is a fugitive released India in exchange for passengers of the hijacked Indian Airlines plane IC-814 in 1999. He was serving a prison term in India for kidnappings of Western tours in the country.
After his release in 1999, Azhar formed the JeM and scripted many audacious terror strikes in India.
Pakan has banned the JeM which is accused India of several terror attacks, including the Pulwama attack in February 2019, which brought Pakan and India to the brink of a nuclear exchange.
In May 2019, the United Nations designated Azhar a “global terror” after China lifted its hold on a proposal to blackl the Pakan-based JeM chief, a decade after New Delhi approached the world body for the first time on the issue.
The UN committee led Azhar on May 1, 2019 as being associated with Al-Qaeda for “participating in the financing, planning, facilitating, preparing, or perpetrating of acts or activities , 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.