New Delhi: Masood Azhar, the chief of the Jaish-e-Mohammad, has virtually gone into hiding post Operation Sindoor. It is a well-known fact that his outfit was literally shredded to pieces by the Indian armed forces.
A commander of the JeM had also admitted that Azhar’s family was torn to pieces during the operation that was carried out to avenge the Pahalgam attack.
According to the Indian agencies, Azhar is in hiding and has been advised not to come out in the open.
The Indian armed forces are monitoring him closely, and the Pakistan Army wants to take no chances; hence, they have kept him under their watch.
The stoic silence by Azhar has made the JeM cadres uneasy. Some are losing hope as they are not seeing any leadership.
In the past, when Azhar would go into hiding or would undertake some medical treatment, his brother Rauf Azghar would call the shots.
Azghar was in charge of everything in the JeM, and he was the perfect lieutenant for his brother Azhar. Azghar was, however, killed at Bahawalpur during Operation Sindoor. This was a major blow for the JeM as they had lost their operations chief.
Azhar, on the other hand, has been more of an ideological head, and now, in the absence of both, the cadres are losing faith in the outfit.
To keep the news flowing and in order to give hope to the cadres, the JeM has been making announcements of opening new wings.
Recently, it was learnt that the outfit is opening its women’s wing. Intelligence Bureau officials said that the JeM would take time to rebuild. Moreover, it is aware that any misadventure with India would be met with appropriate action. Hence, it is in no position to take any risks to boost the morale of its cadres. Hence, the outfit keeps floating news about opening new wings and undertaking other activities. This is only to keep the morale of the cadre high so that they feel that some activity is taking place.
With the JeM down and the leadership invincible, Indian agencies have warned that while the outfit may not try any misadventure, it could, however, step up the circulation of propaganda videos.
The agencies have learnt that the videos are not just in circulation in large numbers in Pakistan, but in parts of India as well.
The outfit is generating videos using Artificial Intelligence (AI) and circulating them in large numbers. AI is being used to generate images and videos of Azhar.
The cadres are being made to believe that all is well with their chief, and hence, they should always keep their morale high.
Officials say that while such propaganda may work, it is, however, only temporary.
The JeM cadres would like to carry out attacks in Jammu and Kashmir, and if they are barred for a long time, then they may wonder what has changed. It would be very difficult for the ISI to contain these elements. Another daunting problem facing the ISI was that many within the JeM are unhappy with the way relations have turned out with the Taliban.
The outfit has been a backer of the Taliban, but today has to maintain silence as the establishment in Pakistan is anti-Afghan Taliban.
The JeM leadership was always of the belief that all radical Islamic groups must unite, and their battle should be against India and the West. However, the dynamics in Pakistan, owing to poor leadership, have changed completely. Today, the establishment is in battle with the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA) and the Afghan Taliban.
Many within the JeM are unhappy with the ongoing situation, and the ISI fears that there is a chance that many may defect. The only way that the ISI can calm or boost the cadres is by directing a major attack on India. However, that is too risky for the ISI as it is aware that the Indian government, with a new doctrine, will not take such a misadventure lightly.
(IANS)
