Azhar was born in Bahawalpur, Punjab on July 10, 1968 as one of ten siblings although some sources list his birth date as August 7, 1968 as the third of 11 children. His father, Allah Bakhsh Shabbir, was the headmaster at a government-run school, and his family operated a dairy and poultry farm. Azhar studied at the Jamia Uloom ul Islamia Banuri Town in Karachi, where he became involved with Harkat-ul-Ansar.
After he suffered injuries in the Soviet-Afghan War, Azhar was chosen as the head of Harkat’s department of motivation and became an editor for the Urdu-language Sade Mujahidin and the Arabic-language Sawte Kashmir.
Azhar later became the general secretary of Harkat-ul-Ansar and visited many international locations to recruit, to raise funds and to spread the message of Pan-Islamism.
Among his destinations were Zambia, Abu Dhabi, Saudi Arabia, Mongolia, the United Kingdom and Albania.
Azhar reportedly confessed that in 1993 he traveled to Nairobi, Kenya to meet with leaders of al-Itihaad al-Islamiya, an al-Qaeda-aligned Somali group, who had requested money and recruits from Harkat-ul-Mujahideen (HuM).
Indian intelligence officials believe that he made at least three trips to Somalia and that he also helped bring Yemeni mercenaries to Somalia.
1994 arrest 1999 release
In early 1994, Azhar reportedly traveled to Srinagar to ease tensions between Harkat-ul-Ansar’s feuding factions of Harkat-ul-Jihad-al-Islami and Harkat-ul-Mujahideen.
India arrested him in February and imprisoned him for his activities with the groups.
In December 1999, he was freed by the Indian government in exchange for passengers on the hijacked Indian Airlines Flight 814 (IC814) that had eventually landed in Kandhar, Afghanistan, which at the time the Taliban controlled.
The hijackers of IC814 were reportedly led by Masood Azhar’s brother, Ibrahim Athar. His release from Kot Bhalwal jail was supervised by an IPS officer, S P Vaid
His younger brother Abdul Rauf Asghar had planned this attack. Once Masood Azhar was handed over to the hijackers, they fled to Pakistani territory. Pakistan had said the hijackers would be arrested if found, a difficult task given the length of the border and multitude of access points from Afghanistan. The Pakistani government also previously indicated that Azhar would be allowed to return home since he did not face any charges there.
Shortly after his release, Azhar made a public address to an estimated 10,000 people in Karachi. He proclaimed, “I have come here because this is my duty to tell you that Muslims should not rest in peace until we have destroyed America and India,” vowing to liberate the Kashmir region from Indian rule.
2001 arrest 2002 release
Masood Azhar’s outfit Jaish-e-Mohammed allegedly carried out a string of deadly attacks against Indian targets, including the attack on the Indian parliament in December 2001 that brought India and Pakistan to the brink of a full-scale war.
Soon after the Indian parliament attack, Masood Azhar was detained for a year by Pakistani authorities in connection but was never formally charged. The Lahore High Court ordered an end to the house arrest on 14 December 2002, much to the fury of India.
November 2008 Mumbai Attacks
On December 7, 2008, it was claimed that he was among several arrested by the Pakistani government after a military raid on a camp located on the outskirts of Muzaffarabad in connection with the November 2008 terror attacks in Mumbai.
Pakistan’s government denied it had arrested Masood Azhar and said it was unaware of his whereabouts,
On Jan 26, 2014, Masood Azhar reappeared after a seclusion of six years. He addressed a rally in Muzaffarabad, calling for the resumption of jihad in Kashmir.
India blames Masood Azhar for the deadly militant attack on the Pathankot Air Force base earlier this month.
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