Blow to Pakistan's denials: Jaish terrorist admits Masood Azhar planned Delhi, Mumbai attacks

A senior Jaish-e-Mohammed terrorist has directly implicated his boss Masood Azhar in planning and executing terror attacks in Delhi and Mumbai, shredding Pakistan's long-standing denials of hosting terror groups on its soil.

Masood Ilyas Kashmiri, a top commander of the UN-designated outfit, admitted in a video that Azhar orchestrated attacks from Pakistani territory after being freed by India following five years of imprisonment. Kashmiri said Azhar was based in Balakot, the same area targeted by Indian airstrikes in 2019.

"After escaping the prison of Tihar Jail in Delhi, Amir-ul-Mujahideen Maulana Masood Azhar comes to Pakistan. The soil of Balakot provides him a base to carry forward his vision, mission, and programme Delhi and Bombay [Mumbai]—this is how Maulana Masood Azhar, the Amir-ul-Mujahideen who terrorised the country, appears," Kashmiri said in the video.

His statement leaves Islamabad with little room to deny the existence of terror sanctuaries and directly corroborates India's claims that Jaish camps operated freely under Pakistan's watch.

Balakot to Bahawalpur: Terror trail unmasked

The Jaish commander credited Pakistan's Balakot as the staging ground for Azhar's campaign of violence against India, even invoking Osama bin Laden as a "martyr" who shaped the outfit's ideology.

In another admission, first reported by India Today on Tuesday, Kashmiri revealed that the May 7 strike on Jaish's Bahawalpur headquarters, Jamia Masjid Subhan Allah, caused devastating losses, including the deaths of Azhar's family members, who were "torn apart" in the bombing.

The strike was part of Operation Sindoor, under which Indian forces destroyed multiple terror launchpads in Pakistan and in Pakistan Occupied Kashmir in retaliation for the April 22 Pahalgam attack that killed 26 civilians.

Pakistan generals at terrorist funerals

Kashmiri also alleged that the Pakistan Army ordered senior generals to attend funerals of slain Jaish terrorists in Bahawalpur. He claimed the directive came directly from Army Chief Gen Asim Munir. His remarks echoed earlier videos on social media that showed high-ranking Pakistani military officials leading funerals of proscribed terrorists killed in Indian strikes.

India had previously accused Islamabad of giving state funerals to jihadists, calling it proof of Pakistan’s military-intelligence nexus with terror outfits.

Kashmiri's testimony, invoking both Azhar and Pakistan’s army leadership, further exposes Pakistan’s duplicity - publicly aligning with the West on counterterrorism while sheltering and glorifying terrorists at home.