- JeM adopts new name, retains old flag
- Masood’s brother Abdul Rauf Asghar new chief of the outfit
- Balakot terror training camps reactivated
- 30 suicide bombers’ group formed
New Delhi: Pakistan-based, sponsored and funded terrorist group Jaish-e-Muhammed (JeM) has changed its name to Majlis Wurasa-e-Shuhuda Jammu wa Kashmir in a bid to ward off global pressure and scrutiny over its jihadi training activities,.
Mufti Abdul Rauf Asghar, the younger brother of its bedridden chief Masoor Azhar, has taken control of the renamed outfit, media reports, quoting government sources, said.
Azhar, a globally-designated terrorist, lies terminally ill in Markaz Usman-o-Ali in Bhawalpur, Pakistan.
Now, JeM, with fresh support from Islamabad, has adopted a new name while retaining its existing leadership and terrorist cadre. Earlier, it was known as Khudam-ul-Islam and Al Rehmat Trust.
Majlis Wurasa-e-Shuhuda Jammu wa Kashmir (or, the “gathering of the descendents of martyrs of J&K”) has also retained the JeM flag, with the new word “Al-Islam” replacing “Al-Jihad”.
A JeM leader. Maulana Abid Mukhtar, had recently called for jihad against India, the US and Israel.
Reports said JeM has assembled together 30 suicide bombers to attack India, particularly installations in military cantonments and convoys of Indian security forces in J&K.
Rauf Asghar has not only reactivated the Markaz Syed Ahmad Shaheed training camp at Balakot this month but has also been motivating recruits in Bhawalpur and Sialkot to attack Indian security establishments.
On Monday, Indian Army chief General Bipin Rawat had said that up to 500 Pakistan-trained terrorists were waiting to infiltrate J&K and other states to carry out terror attacks. Some of the terror centres and launch-pads, deactivated after the IAF’s aerial strike on Balakot in February 2019, have been reactivated after India abrogated the Articles 370 and 35-A, scrapping the “special status” of J&K.
