A senior Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) commander, Masood Ilyas Kashmiri, has made explosive revelations in a video confession that directly implicate Masood Azhar in plotting and executing terror strikes in India. His admission shatters Pakistan’s long-standing narrative that it does not harbour terror groups on its soil and exposes the safe havens provided to banned outfits within its borders.
In the video, Kashmiri — a top lieutenant of the UN-designated terrorist organisation — openly acknowledged that Azhar orchestrated attacks in Delhi and Mumbai from his base in Balakot, Pakistan, soon after being freed by India following his release from Tihar Jail. He described Balakot as the soil that “provided Azhar the base to continue his mission” of spreading terror in India, echoing what New Delhi has consistently maintained. Kashmiris even glorified Osama bin Laden as a “martyr” and ideological influence, highlighting the jihadist network’s wider inspiration.
His statement not only validates India’s position that JeM camps operated with impunity in Balakot but also corroborates the significance of India’s 2019 Balakot airstrikes, which had specifically targeted these facilities. Kashmiri further revealed that a May 7 strike on Jaish’s Bahawalpur headquarters, Jamia Masjid Subhan Allah, resulted in heavy losses for the group, including the deaths of Azhar’s close family members, who were reportedly “torn apart” in the bombing. This devastating blow came under Operation Sindoor, India’s military retaliation for the April 22 Pahalgam attack that claimed 26 civilian lives.
Adding to the embarrassment for Islamabad, Kashmiri disclosed that Pakistan’s Army Chief, Gen Asim Munir, instructed generals to attend funerals of slain Jaish terrorists in Bahawalpur. Videos of senior Pakistani military officers leading funeral processions had already surfaced online in May, drawing sharp criticism from India, which accused Pakistan of giving state honours to proscribed terrorists. Kashmiris’ claim reinforces the widely held view of a deep nexus between Pakistan’s military-intelligence establishment and terror groups like JeM.
By directly attributing terror strikes in India to Azhar and naming Pakistan’s soil as the staging ground, the Jaish commander’s expose leaves Islamabad with little diplomatic cover. It starkly exposes the decades of duplicity where Pakistan projected itself as a partner in the global fight against terrorism while covertly sheltering and supporting jihadist outfits that targeted India.
