Readers will recall that last week, India launched air strikes against places in Pakistan that it claimed were terrorist bases or support areas. It seems that at least once, they got their target identification right.
India’s governing BJP party said on Thursday that its “Operation Sindhoor” counter-terrorist airstrikes on Pakistan “eliminated” Abdul Rauf Azhar, the operational commander of the Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) terrorist group and the mastermind behind American journalist Daniel Pearl’s kidnapping and beheading in 2002.
Rauf Azhar was the younger brother of JeM founder Masood Azhar, who was also targeted by India on Tuesday night. Masood Azhar survived the airstrikes, but said ten members of his family were killed.
. . .
The kidnapping and murder of Daniel Pearl is one of many heinous acts JeM has been linked to. Pearl, a reporter for the Wall Street Journal (WSJ), was abducted by terrorists from a hotel in Karachi, Pakistan, in January 2002. He had moved to Pakistan from India to investigate Islamic terrorism after the 9/11 attack on America.
Abdul Rauf Azhar was one of the kidnappers, working with a group that called itself “The National Movement for the Restoration of Pakistani Sovereignty.” They claimed Pearl was an Israeli spy and send the United States a long list of demands for his freedom. When those demands were not met, they forced Pearl to film a video in which he identified himself as a “Jewish American,” and then chopped his head off.
The terrorists released the video to the public under the title “The Slaughter of the Spy-Journalist, the Jew Daniel Pearl.” His body was dumped in a shallow grave near Karachi.
There's more at the link.
JeM has long been regarded as a state-sponsored terrorist organization, backed by Pakistan. Wikipedia reports:
JeM was allegedly created with the support of Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), which is using it to carry out terrorist attacks in Kashmir and [the] rest of India. Due to sustained international pressure against Pakistan sponsored terrorism, JeM was banned in Pakistan in 2002 as a formality. However, the organization was never seriously disrupted or dismantled. Its arrested leaders were subsequently released without any charges and permitted to re-form under new names. Its variants openly continue operations under different names or charities in several facilities in Pakistan.
Thanks to India for delivering a good shellacking to JeM. I daresay that somewhere, the ghost of Daniel Pearl is feeling a little better today . . .
Peter
5 comments:
Just the latest chapter in the war between islam and every else on the planet. All the muslims know they are at war. Very few of the rest of us either know or want to acknowledge this reality. If the world does wake up and eliminate this disease it WILL eventually destroy civilization.
This is not the end, just a small victory. But a good one!
ISI has been a bane to Pakistani acceptance in the world, and region since it was formed...
If India is shelling and bombing Pakistan, does it really matter if they're on target or not??
Anything they hit is generally a community service.
Too bad he couldn't have made it to Syria, they would have made him vice president...
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