Masood Azhar Sends Top Terrorist on 'New Assignment' as Jaish Teams up With Taliban: Report

New Delhi: Latest inputs received by security agencies indicate that the dreaded Pakistan-based terrorist group, Jaish-e-Mohammad, could be in touch with the Taliban and the Haqqani network.

Top officials in the Home Ministry told News18 that a very senior Jaish commander, one Maviya Khan, is understood to have been dispatched by the terror group on the instructions of Masood Azhar, to Pak-Afghan border last month. Maviya Khan is understood to be the 'launching commander' of the terror network. However, officials say, the details of his travel and the people he's likely to meet haven’t been ascertained yet.

Maviya Khan is said to have been running terror launchpads in Nakyal, Kotli area of Pakistan-occupied Jammu and Kashmir, from where he was asked to handle 'a new assignment' in Afghan-Pak region, according to intercepts made by security agencies.

At the same time, the 'operational commander' of the Bhawalpur-based terror group, Rauf Azghar, is believed to have come to the terror launchpads in PoK region with a fresh batch of around 50 recruits during the same period. Agencies have flagged the possibility of the terror group, in coordination with Pak army, carrying out BAT action near the Line of Control.

Pakistan's notorious Border Action Teams (BATs) generally comprises of special forces personnel of the Pakistani Army, and terrorists who try to infiltrate or kill Indian soldiers posted on the border. Since the nullification of article 370, Indian forces have been able to fight off several BAT attempts.

Jaish is the same terror group that claimed responsibility for carrying out the deadly Pulwama attack in February in which 40 paramilitary soldiers were killed. The terror group is believed to have trained the local Kashmiri who carried out the suicide attack. It is notorious for targeting security forces and administration posted in Kashmir with Pak-trained suicide bombers.

In 2001, its squad of three fidayeens stormed the Jammu and Kashmir legislative assembly complex in Srinagar with a Tata Sumo car laden with explosives. Over 40 people, including 38 Indians and three terrorists, were killed in the attack.