Bahawalpur (Pakistan): The elder brother of Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) chief and UN-designated terrorist Maulana Masood Azhar, has reportedly died in Pakistan under mysterious circumstances.
The proscribed terror outfit said that Mohammad Tahir Anwar’s funeral was scheduled to be held at Jamia Masjid Usman Wali in Pakistan’s Bahawalpur. However, the exact cause of his death was not disclosed, as reported by NDTV.
Anwar is said to be one of Masood’s five brothers. He played a key role within the JeM and was actively involved in the terror outfit’s operations.
India has struck the outfit’s headquarters – Jamia Masjid Subhan Allah in Bahawalpur – during Operation Sindoor, killing several terrorists. Masood had then claimed that 10 members of his family and four of his aides were killed in the attack.
Masood, who was arrested in India in 1994 and released after the Air India IC 814 hijack, says that those killed in the strike on the JeM headquarters, included his elder sister, her husband, a nephew and his wife, a niece, and five children from the extended family.
“Ten members of my family were blessed with this happiness together tonight… five are innocent children, my elder sister, her honourable husband. My scholar Fazil bhanje (nephew) and his wife and my beloved scholar Fazilah (niece)… my dear brother Huzaifah and his mother. Two more dear companions,” he said, saying that those killed have become the guests of Allah.
He has “neither regret nor despair”, Masood said. “Rather, it comes to my heart again and again that I too would have joined this fourteen-member happy caravan,” he added. The terrorist said, “Time for their departure had come, but the Lord did not kill them.”
Masood, who has been involved in the conspiracy behind multiple terror attacks in India, including the 2001 Parliament attack, 2008 Mumbai attacks, 2016 Pathankot attack and 2019 Pulwama attack, is under the scanner of Indian agencies.
