Pakistan-based terror group Jaish-e-Mohammed launches online course to recruit women into new all-female unit

In a marked departure from its traditional male-dominated structure, the United Nations-designated terrorist group Jaish-e-Mohammed has begun recruiting women through a new online course aimed at indoctrinating participants and building a dedicated female brigade. The course, titled “Tufat al-Muminat” is set to start on Nov. 8 and will consist of 40-minute daily sessions delivered via online meeting platforms. It is designed to draw in women from across Pakistan and Pakistan occupied Kashmir, charging each enrollee a 500 Pakistani rupee donation (about $1.80) while requiring them to complete an online information form. The initiative, led by relatives of the group’s founder, Masood Azhar, shows JeM’s evolving tactics amid recent setbacks, including deadly Indian airstrikes that decimated its headquarters in Pakistan's heartland-Punjab.

JeM, has been responsible for major terror attacks in India, including the 2019 Pulwama bombing that killed 40 Indian paramilitary officers, announced the formation of its women’s wing, Jamat ul-Muminat (Community of Believing Women), on October 8. The brigade’s leadership includes Azhar’s younger sister, Sadiya Azhar, whose husband, Yusuf Azhar, a senior JeM commander, was killed in India’s Operation Sindoor airstrikes in May. Also on the group’s advisory council, or Shura, are another of Azhar’s sisters, Safia Azhar, and Afreera Farooq, the widow of Umar Farooq, the JeM operative behind the Pulwama attack who was later killed in an Indian counterterrorism operation. The instructors for the course will include Sadiya Azhar.

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The program is framed as a means to empower women but sources familiar with JeM’s operations say it is part of a broader push to create female suicide squads modeled on those used by groups like the Islamic State and Hamas.

JeM’s pivot toward women comes months after Operation Sindoor, a series of Indian missile strikes on May 7 that targeted the group’s Bahawalpur headquarters, Markaz Subhanallah, killing several Azhar family members and commanders.The attacks prompted Azhar and his brother, Talha al-Saif, to rethink the group’s strategy, including the integration of women into operational roles — a shift from JeM’s roots, which historically discouraged female involvement in combat.

Intelligence reports indicate that initial recruitment for Jamat ul-Muminat has focused on the wives of JeM commanders and economically vulnerable women studying at the group’s centers in Bahawalpur, Karachi, Muzaffarabad, Kotli, Haripur and Mansehra. An event on Oct. 19 in Rawalkot, in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir, called “Dukhtaran-e-Islam”, served as an early mobilization effort.

The fundraising aspect of the course highlights broader concerns about Pakistan’s enforcement of global financial safeguards. Despite commitments to the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), an international body combating money laundering and terror financing, Islamabad has turned a blind eye to groups like JeM, which operate seminaries and collect donations openly. In a Sept. 27 speech at Markaz Usman-o-Ali, Azhar himself urged followers to donate amid the group’s rebuilding efforts, a plea now extended through this program.