JeM chief Masood Azhar claims thousands of suicide bombers are ready to strike

An audio clip has appeared in which Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) chief and founder Masood Azhar is apparently trying to flex muscle by claiming that a big number of suicide bombers are ready to strike. The audio purportedly in the voice of Masood Azhar has surfaced on social media platforms, in which he claims that the outfit has “thousands” of suicide bombers ready to carry out attacks. However, neither the authenticity nor the time of the audio’s recording could be independently verified.

Azhar makes sweeping claims in the audio about his cadre, saying they are not “one, two, or a hundred, not even a thousand”, and goes on to boast that revealing the actual number would cause an uproar in global media. He further claims that these recruits only seek “shahadat” (martyrdom) and do not want any material rewards or personal gains.

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The audio appears to be more of a rant than a credible threat since Indian forces had struck Jaish establishments inside Pakistan, including its headquarters in Bahawalpur, in which several of Azhar’s close relatives were also killed.

Jaish had indirectly acknowledged these losses in September last year when a senior commander of the terror outfit admitted in a video that members of Azhar’s family were killed during India’s strike on Bahawalpur. The strike under Operation Sindoor was part of India’s response to the April 22 terror attack in Pahalgam in which 26 innocent civilians were brutally killed by terrorists.

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Indian strikes had reduced multiple terror sites to rubble. Around 10 of Azhar’s relatives, including his sister, her husband, a nephew, a niece, and children from his extended family, were among those killed in the strike on the Bahawalpur facility. Several of his aides also died in the pre-dawn attack.

Masood Azhar has not been seen publicly since 2019, when his Bahawalpur hideout was hit by a powerful blast, but he survived.

Azhar, a UN-designated terrorist, is the mastermind behind some of the deadliest attacks in India, including the 2016 Pathankot airbase attack and the 2019 Pulwama suicide bombing that killed 44 CRPF personnel.

Intelligence inputs in recent months have suggested that he may be operating far from Bahawalpur now.

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The audio has surfaced after Lashkar-e-Taiba’s deputy chief Saifullah Kasuri was captured on video claiming that the Pakistan army invited him to lead funeral prayers of its soldiers after Operation Sindoor last May. Both clips were posted on Telegram and X by pro-ISI accounts as propaganda after devastating losses during Operation Sindoor.