Pakistan alleges that Masood Azhar is in Afghanistan

New Delhi/Islamabad: Pakistan has reportedly written to the Taliban regime of Afghanistan to arrest international terrorist Masood Azhar. In this letter, Pakistan has claimed that Azhar is hiding in Afghanistan. The Financial Action Task Force (FATF) has placed Pakistan in the Grey List accusing Pakistan of supporting and nurturing terrorists. Some experts are claiming that Pakistan, which has been in FATF’s Grey List for the last two years, is trying to get out of this and this may be a new trick Pakistan plays.

In 2019, Maulana Masood Azhar, who carried out many terrorist attacks in India, was declared an international terrorist by the United Nations. Earlier, China had repeatedly blocked the proposal to declare Masood Azhar, who operated from Pakistan, a terrorist. But after he was included in the list of international terrorists, the pressure on Pakistan to take action against Azhar increased. As Pakistan was included in the grey list, it became necessary for Pakistan to take action against Azhar. However, acting on that had become a difficult task for Pakistan. Against this backdrop, there were reports of Azhar’s sudden disappearance. For the last two and a half years, claims were being made that Azhar’s whereabouts were unknown. But Indian analysts were alleging that he was kept in a safe house by the Pakistan Army.

Recently, a team of FATF visited Pakistan. As per some reports, the team cited that Pakistan is trying to act on 38 suggestions made by FATF regarding action against terrorists and financial support. Therefore, it was predicted that Pakistan would get out of the grey list. But another report by FATF has also reported that Pakistan has failed miserably on 10 of the 11 international rules laid down by FATF to prevent terrorist financing.

Thus, it will not be easy for Pakistan to get out of the grey list. Against this backdrop, Pakistan has claimed that Masood Azhar is hiding in Afghanistan. Pakistan has claimed that Azhar is in the Nangarhar region of Afghanistan and has issued instructions to the Taliban regime of Afghanistan to capture Azhar. However, it is being claimed that Pakistan has played this trick to dissolve the blame for not taking action against international terrorists like Masood Azhar.