FATF Pressure On, Pakistan Writes To Taliban Seeking Masood Azhar's Arrest

The one-page letter written by Pakistan also pointed out two different provinces of Afghanistan — namely Nangarhar and Kunar — where Azhar is mostly likely hiding, reported Geo News

The Government of Pakistan is learnt to have written a letter to the Taliban-ruled Afghanistan government demanding immediate arrest of Jaish-e-Mohammad chief Maulana Masood Azhar, local media reported. The one-page letter also pointed out two different provinces of Afghanistan — namely Nangarhar and Kunar — where Azhar is mostly likely hiding, according to a report in Pakistan's Geo News.

Confirming this, sources told ABP News that Islamabad has shared intelligence about the suspected whereabouts of Masood Azhar in Afghanistan. 

In its report, Geo News quoted a top official privy to the development as saying: “We have written a one-page letter to the Afghan Foreign Ministry, asking it to locate, report and arrest Masood Azhar as we believe that he is hiding somewhere in Afghanistan.” 

Senior Taliban leader Suhail Shaheen, however, told ABP News that they have received no letter from the Government of Pakistan regarding Azhar’s arrest. Suhail Shaheen is the Permanent Representative of Afghanistan to the United Nations, and also heads Taliban's Political Committee of Doha.

FATF Pressure On Pakistan 

The development comes after Paris-based international watchdog Financial Action Task Force (FATF) pressurised Islamabad to take action against some of the UN-designated terrorists, which could finally see Pakistan get out of the grey list. Pakistan has been on the FATF grey list since June 2018 for its failure to check money laundering, which leads to terror financing.

Notably, Pakistan's recent action on Lashkar e Taiba (LeT) operational commander Sajid Mir, who it kept on declaring dead until recently, is the result of FATF's persistent pressure on Pakistan. 

Islamabad maintains that Azhar is not in Pakistan and likely to be in Afghanistan. Despite claims by Pakistan that he is not traceable, Azhar continues to publish articles on Pakistani social media networks exhorting JeM cadres to indulge in Jihad and eulogising the Taliban takeover of Kabul, claiming that Taliban victory would open avenues for Muslim victories elsewhere, South Asia Press reported.

Azhar formed Jaish-e-Mohammad terror outfit after India set him free along with two other terrorists in exchange for passengers taken hostile after an Indian Airlines flight was hijacked from Kathmandu and taken to Afghanistan's Kandhar in December 1999. 

(With inputs from ANI)