UN designated global terrorist Masood Azhar, chief of the banned Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM), should be arrested by January 18 in connection with a terror financing case, an anti-terrorism court in Pakistan has asked the Punjab Police, a court official said on Saturday.
The Anti-Terrorism Court (ATC) Gujranwala issued an arrest warrant against Azhar in the terror financing case instituted by the CTD in the previous hearing on Thursday.
“ATC Gujranwala judge Natasha Naseem Supra during the case hearing on Friday directed the CTD to arrest JeM chief Masood Azhar by January 18 and present him in the court. In case of failure (to arrest him), the court may begin proceedings to declare him a proclaimed offender,” a court official told PTI on Saturday.
Azhar is facing charges of terror financing and selling jihadi literature.
Following the Palwama terror attack in February 2019, Pakistan’s Punjab police had launched a crackdown on terrorism financing and arrested six militants of the JeM in Gujranwala, some 130 kms from Lahore. Azhar is facing the trial in this case.
Following the immense international pressure after the Pulwama attack, the Pakistan government arrested over 100 members of the banned militant outfits including the JeM chief’s son and brother.
The government also took control of the JeM, Mumbai terror attack mastermind Hafiz Saeed’s Jamaat-ud-Dawah (JuD) and Falahai Insaniat Foundation (FIF) properties including seminaries and mosques across the country.
The JeM had claimed responsibility for the Pulwama terror attack in which 40 CRPF soldiers were killed.
Pakistan’s Punjab government claimed to have taken over the administrative control of the JeM headquarters — comprising Madressatul Sabir and Jama-e-Masjid Subhanallah — in Bahawalpur.
In May 2019, the United Nations designated Azhar as a “global terrorist” after China lifted its hold on a proposal to blacklist the Pakistan-based JeM chief, a decade after New Delhi approached the world body for the first time on the issue.