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ShareISLAMABAD: Fugitive Jaish-e-Mohammad chief Maulana Masood Azhar has abandoned his under-construction headquarters in the Model Town area of Bahawalpur and temporarily shifted base to the North Waziristan region after mounting Indian pressure for his extradition.
While Pakistani foreign minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi and information minister Sherry Rehman stated publicly that Azhar was missing and the Pakistan government was unaware of his whereabouts, there are intelligence reports in Islamabad that he was told to leave Bahawalpur in mid-December.
The JeM chief subsequently left for Muzaffarabad, but decided to temporarily shift to North Waziristan.
The sources say the Pakistani establishment which had arranged for his release from Indian custody in 2000 through a plane hijacking, does not want him to be extradited to Delhi and, thus, advised him to leave for the lawless Waziristan region.
The sources say Azhar appointed younger brother Mufti Abdul Rauf as acting chief of Jaish in his absence. Pakistani defence minister Chaudhry Ahmed Mukhtar had confirmed early December that Azhar was under house arrest in Bahawalpur. However, foreign minister Qureshi contradicted him a few days later.
The sources say the Jaish chief was told to abandon his headquarters before he was spotted there by international media.
India has made it clear that Pakistan must hand over terror suspects, including the JeM chief, if it wants relations to improve. India argues that Azhar, whose sermons have incited followers to commit acts of terror against India, could not have vanished. That is what New Delhi is asking Islamabad, which is trying to protect him, fearing that handing him over to New Delhi would open a Pandora's box, creating problems for the Pakistani military and intelligence establishment.
