Washington, Oct 10 (IANS) After more than two decades of terror group Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) operating in Pakistan, the international community can no longer accept paperwork as proof of counterterrorism action. The real test lies in whether globally designated terrorist leaders are tracked down and prosecuted, their operational infrastructure dismantled and their networks prevented from regrouping, a report has stated.
“There is something almost surreal about Pakistan’s latest wanted notice for Masood Azhar, the founder and current leader of the anti-India Salafi-Jihadist group Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM). When you open the Federal Investigation Agency’s 2026 ‘Red Book’ of most-wanted terrorists, the JeM founder appears as expected. The document mentions his crimes and a reward for information leading to his arrest,” according to a report in US-based media organisation ‘Fair Observer’.
“Reportedly, this bounty has risen from five million Pakistani rupees in 2021 to seven million today. Pakistani authorities supposedly have no idea as to where these terrorists live. They are meant to be on the run, and the law is supposed to be hunting them,” it noted.
In a striking detail, the Red Book does not merely list Masood Azhar as a wanted terrorist; it also identifies his residence in the Kausar Colony area in Bahawalpur, in Pakistan’s Punjab province. It further links him to three Counter Terrorism Department cases registered in Punjab between 2020 and 2021, the report detailed.
It asked if Pakistani authorities knew the whereabouts of Azhar, then why he has still not been arrested.
According to the report, the US Treasury, too, has long linked Azhar to Kausar Colony in Bahawalpur, while JeM’s extensive presence in the city has remained an open secret for years.
In May 2025, following the deadly Pahalgam terror attack, Indian military strikes hit the terror group’s headquarters at the Markaz Subhan Allah complex in Bahawalpur. Azhar later acknowledged that 10 members of his family were killed in the strikes, Fair Observer highlighted.
The report argued that decades of evidence pointing to links between elements of Pakistan’s security establishment and terrorist groups make accusations of state-enabled terrorism impossible to brush aside.
Pakistan’s support for terrorism, it said, has also brought it under scrutiny from the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), an intergovernmental body established by the G7 countries in 1989 to combat money laundering and terrorist financing.
“In June 2018, the FATF placed Pakistan on its Grey List, which is officially termed “Jurisdictions under Increased Monitoring.” The FATF did so because of long-standing concerns regarding persistent and consistent concerns about terrorist financing in Pakistan. This put enormous pressure on Pakistan’s fragile economy. In October 2022, Pakistan exited the Grey List,” the report stated.
“The FATF will hold its next plenary in Paris from October 26 to 30. While the body has not publicly announced that Pakistan faces a specific Grey List decision at that meeting — and it would be premature to claim otherwise — the country’s compliance record remains the central issue,” it added.
–IANS
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