By Ajay Kaul
New Delhi, Sep 20 (NVI) Even as the Trump Administration treats Pakistan as a strategic ally, the Pakistani military is patronizing terrorists who swear ideological allegiance to Osama Bin Laden and openly curse the US, along with Israel and India.
A number of public rallies have recently been witnessed in Pakistan, where top terrorists of banned terror outfits — Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) and Hizbul Mujahideen – talked about jihad against the US, Israel and India, significantly in the presence of some top Pakistani military officials and politicians.
More glaring is the contradiction that Pakistan represents to the world. While it is the current Chair of the UN Security Council (UNSC), in its backyard, terror outfits and terrorists proscribed by the same global body are holding public events and ranting about jihad against the civilized world, that too under official patronage.
An example in this regard is a rally addressed by Masood Ilyas Kashmiri, a senior commander of JeM who swears by Osama Bin Laden in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
At the rally, the terrorist who fought against NATO forces in Afghanistan till 2006 spit venom against not just India but also against the USA & Israel.
The original name of Masood Ilyas Kashmiri is Abu Mohammad and he changed his name after his inspiration and role model Ilyas Kashmir, the Commander of Al-Qaeda Brigade 313, was killed in a US drone attack in Afghanistan in 2011.
Born in Rawalakot in Pakistan-occupied Jammu and Kashmir (PoJK), Masood returned to Pakistan from Afghanistan in 2007 and was made the JeM’s district commander of Rawalakot where he established the ‘Markaz Shohoda-e-Kashmir training camp.
Close to the Pakistani military, Masood has also been made by his masters the ‘Commander of Hilal-ul-Haq Brigade’ alias People’s Anti-Fascist Front (PAFF).
His operational track record includes his role as the mastermind of the 2018 terror attack on Indian Army Camp attack in Sunjawan in Jammu, where six Indian soldiers and one civilian were killed.
India’s NIA chargesheet identifies him alongside Masood Azhar and Abdul Rauf Asghar as planners who provided weapons and logistics to the attackers.
In 2019, it was further established that Kashmiri assumed command of the joint Lashkar–Jaish formation called the Hilal-ul-Haq Brigade, which was later rebranded as PAFF as a façade for terror activities in Kashmir.
So, Pakistan continues to double-cross the US and President Donald Trump is looking the other way.
In fact, it is the same Trump, who in his earlier tenure as the President, had said in January 2018 that Pakistan had been deceiving the US for decades under the garb of fighting terrorism. (NVI)
