Covert agencies here have launched an internal enquiry to ascertain the reasons behind failure of an operation to poison Jaish-e-Mohammad chief Maulana Masood Azhar while the terror mastermind was undergoing renal treatment earlier this year.

Top sources said two medical officers of Pakistan Army Medical Corps backtracked at the last moment, making the plan to eliminate Azhar astray.

Azhar underwent kidney transplant in March-April this year and the attempt to inject him with a toxin was planned during his dialysis at undisclosed medical facility of the Pak army.  The two Paksitani doctors were roped in for the secret job and a meeting with Indian officials was held in a third country location but with the plan going haywire, the agencies are now seeking to establish how the operation failed and if any hostile intelligence agencies had any role in sabotaging the plan. The plan to hit Azhar by covert means was conceptualised as soon as inputs of his kidney transplant was received by the agencies here. The agencies strated looking for sources in all possible hospitals where Azhar could have been subjected for the kidney transplant in March. In this manner, the doctors of the Pakistan army were identified for the job.

After the poison bid failed, the agencies also attempted to target Azhar when a blast occurred at the Rawalpindi Military Hospital on June 23 but the terror mastermind remained unscathed.  The enquiry will also seek to establish the reasons for the failure of the mission through the blast bid.