Manas Dasgupta
NEW DELHI, May 7: At least 10 family members of the UN-designated terrorist Masood Azhar, the chief of Jaish-e-Mohammed, were killed in “Operation Sindoor” inside Pakistan’s Bahawalpur in retaliation of the Pahalgam terror attack.
Among the killed were Azhar’s sister and her husband, official sources said on Wednesday.
The Indian armed forces struck terrorist camps in Pakistan’s Punjab and PoK. 4 targets were hit in Punjab, where the headquarters of Jaish and Lashkar-e-Taiba are located, while 5 targets were destroyed in PoK, officials said.
Masood Azhar released a statement, admitting that 10 of his family members were killed in the Indian strikes. The Pakistani media had reported that 14 people were killed in his house. Their funeral will take place at Bahawalpur in Pakistan’s Punjab.
One of the two major strikes in Operation Sindoor was on the Subhan Allah complex in Bahawalpur. The government highlighted that the strikes did not take place on the military establishments of Pakistan but on the terror camps.
Qari Mohd Iqbal, a Lashkar religious preacher, was also killed in PoK’s Kotli. The government also said there were no reports of any civilian casualties, fact-checking Pakistan’s claims of civilian areas being targeted in the attack.
“No military establishment was targeted, and there are no reports of civilian casualties. It must be said that the Indian armed forces are fully prepared to respond to a Pakistani misadventure, if any, that will escalate the situation. Terror targets were chosen based on credible intelligence and their involvement in cross-border terrorism,” Wing Commander Vyomika Singh said at a press briefing.
Masood Azhar, mastermind behind the 2001 Parliament attack in New Delhi, had been missing from the public view for several months and had only resurfaced in Bahawalpur around the end of 2024.
The Indian intelligence had a close eye on his movements. Latest satellite imagery and human intelligence revealed that he had resumed command over the terrorist activities from within the walled complex. However, as reports of his family members being taken down in the Indian strikes surfaced, the question follows whether Azhar — India’s one of the most wanted terrorists — is dead too.
“We are verifying ground-level intelligence, but signs point to the possibility that Azhar was present in the facility at the time of the attack,” intelligence sources said.
Sources said India precisely targeted infrastructure in Pakistan being used by terror outfits like Lashkar-e-Taiba and Jaish-e-Mohammed for training terrorists and as hideouts. Indian armed forces successfully struck nine terror targets—four in Pakistan, including Bahawalpur, Muridke, and Sialkot, and five in Pakistan-occupied Jammu and Kashmir.
In an official statement, the Ministry of Defence said: “Our actions have been focused, measured and non-escalatory in nature. No Pakistani military facilities have been targeted. India has demonstrated considerable restraint in the selection of targets and method of execution.”
One of the most high-profile targets was a key mosque complex in Muridke, a town near Lahore which is widely regarded as the nerve centre of Lashkar-e-Taiba. Established in 2000, Muridke Markaz, which is 25-30 km from the Attari-Wagah Border in Amritsar, is known to train terrorists and also serves as a mushrooming ground for radicalisation of students to motivate them to join terror outfits.
The site houses the group’s preaching centre, educational institutions, a madrasa, residential quarters, and facilities for religious indoctrination, arms training, and recruitment. The Markaz enrols around 1,000 students in different courses annually and is known for churning out terror entities for the LeT annually, intel sources added. Osama Bin Laden had financed Rs 10 million for construction of a mosque and guesthouse within the Markaz Taiba complex.
The perpetrators of the 26/11 Mumbai attack—including Ajmal Kasab—were imparted ‘Daura-e-Ribbaf (intelligence training) at this facility. David Coleman Headley and Tahawwur Hussain Rana, the prime conspirators of 26/11 Mumbai attacks, had visited Muridke on instructions of Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi.
Given its location—situated on a major highway and just a few kilometres from Lahore—the Markaz can deploy its assets quickly at a short notice, making it crucial to eliminate the hotbed.
Originally set up to support the Afghan jihad against the Soviets in the 1980s, the Markaz became a base for anti-India operations after the Soviets retreated. Owing to international pressure, when LeT was banned by Pakistan after the 9/11 attacks, Markaz was re-designated as a seminary—the Jamaat-ud-Dawa.
The LeT was established by Hafiz Muhammad Saeed, Zafar Iqbal, and Abdullah Azzam in response to the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. Its parent organization, Markaz-ud-Dawa-wal-Irshad (MDI), was founded in 1987 as a Sunni missionary group with the goal of promoting Salafism, the strictest interpretation of Islam.
Soon after the “Operation Sindoor,” defence ministry issued a statement around 1.45 Am stating, “Our actions have been focused, measured and non-escalatory in nature. No Pakistani military facilities have been targeted. India has demonstrated considerable restraint in selection of targets and method of execution.”
Just few minutes after the official statement, the Army’s official handle on social media ‘X’ put out a post, “Justice is Served. Jai Hind,” along with the hashtag of Pahalgam Terror Attack.
In a statement shortly after Indian defence ministry release, Pakistan initially threatened of reciprocal answer stating, “All strikes were made by India from its own airspace. Pakistan will respond to it at a time and place of its own choosing. It will not go unanswered. The temporary pleasure of India will be replaced by enduring grief,” it stated. It was, however, was quickly backtracked by the Pakistan defence minister Khwaja Asif who said on Wednesday morning that “if India backtracked, Pakistan will not retaliate.”
Since April 22, Pakistan Army has undertaken massive mobilization of troops and heavy equipment along the border with India and has been conducting several exercises along with issuing several ‘Nav area’ warnings and Notices to Airmen (NOTAM). In contrast, while Indian armed forces too conducted several exercises, there was no massive mobilization undertaken.
