Masood Azhar
| Masood Azhar | |
|---|---|
| Born |
10 July 1968 Bahawalpur, Punjab, Pakistan |
| Allegiance | Harkat-ul-Ansar, Harkat-ul-Mujahideen, Jaish-e-Mohammad |
Masood Azhar (Urdu: محمد مسعود اظہر) is the founder and leader of the UN-designated terrorist group Jaish-e-Mohammed, active mainly in the Pakistani administered Azad Kashmir. Pakistani authorities took him into 'protective custody' after the Pathankot attack in India, which was widely reported as an "arrest". However he was seen to be free in April 2016.India had listed Masood Azhar as one of its most wanted terrorists due to his history of militant activities.
Azhar was born in Bahawalpur, Punjab on 10 July 1968 as one of ten siblings although some sources list his birth date as 7 August 1968 as the third of 11 children. Azhar's father, Allah Bakhsh Shabbir, was the headmaster at a government-run school, and his family operated a dairy and poultry farm. Azhar studied at the Jamia Uloom ul Islamia Banuri Town in Karachi, where he became involved with Harkat-ul-Ansar. After he suffered injuries in the Soviet-Afghan War, Azhar was chosen as the head of Harkat's department of motivation and became an editor for the Urdu-language Sad’e Mujahidin and the Arabic-language Sawte Kashmir.
Azhar later became the general secretary of Harkat-ul-Ansar and visited many international locations to recruit, to raise funds and to spread the message of Pan-Islamism. Among his destinations were Zambia, Abu Dhabi, Saudi Arabia, Mongolia, the United Kingdom and Albania.
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