Rauf Azhar, Masood Azhar’s right hand, likely killed in Operation Sindoor

New Delhi: The precision strikes under 'Operation Sindoor' targeting nine terrorist camps in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) has reportedly resulted in the likely elimination of Rauf Azhar, a senior terrorist of Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) and the mastermind behind the 1999 IC814 hijacking. 

Sources also indicate that Azhar’s associates or family members may have been killed in the operation, which is being hailed as a significant step toward delivering justice for the 2002 kidnapping and murder of American Jewish journalist Daniel Pearl.

The operation, launched on May 7, 2025, was a direct response to the April 22 terror attack in Pahalgam, Jammu and Kashmir, where Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) terrorists killed 26 civilians, including a Nepalese citizen. 

According to a senior military official, one of the primary targets was the Markaz Taiba camp of LeT in Pakistan’s Muridke, a known training ground for terrorists, including Ajmal Kasab, the lone surviving perpetrator of the 2008 Mumbai attacks. 

Rauf Azhar, born in 1974 in Pakistan, was a key figure in JeM, an outfit responsible for numerous attacks, including the 2001 Parliament attack and the 2019 Pulwama bombing.

He was involved in the IC814 hijacking, which forced India to release terrorists like Masood Azhar in exchange for hostages.

Azhar’s role in the abduction and brutal beheading of Daniel Pearl, a Wall Street Journal reporter, further cemented his notoriety, with India’s operation now being seen as delivering justice for this heinous crime that shocked the global community.

In 2023, China objected to a proposal by India to blacklist him at the United Nations Security Council.

It is learnt that China objected to the proposal from India to add the leader of the Pakistan-based terror organisation Jaish-e Mohammed (JeM) to the UN Security Council’s 1267 ISIL and Al Qaida Sanctions list.

In August 2022, China put a hold on the proposal by India and the US to designate Rauf Azhar as a global terrorist and subject him to an assets freeze, travel ban and arms embargo.

The US Department of Treasury had in December 2010 designated “Abdul Rauf Azhar, a senior leader of Jaish-e Mohammed (JeM), for acting for or on behalf of JEM".

The US said that as a senior leader of JeM, Abdul Rauf Azhar “has urged Pakistanis to engage in militant activities. He served as JEM's acting leader in 2007, as one of JEM's most senior commanders in India, and as JEM's intelligence coordinator. In 2008 Azhar was assigned to organise suicide attacks in India. He was also involved with JeM's political wing and has served as a JeM official involved with training camps”.

Earlier also, China, an all-weather friend of Islamabad, has placed holds and blocks on bids by India and its allies to list Pakistan-based terrorists.

In May 2019, India had won a huge diplomatic win at the UN when the global body designated Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Mohammed chief Masood Azhar as a "global terrorist”, a decade after New Delhi had first approached the world body on the issue.

A veto-wielding permanent member of the UN Security Council, China was the sole hold-out in the 15-nation body on the bid to blacklist Azhar, blocking attempts by placing a "technical hold". All decisions of the committee are taken through consensus.

In 2022, China put holds on proposals to blacklist Pakistan-based terrorists Hafiz Talah Saeed, Lashkar-e-Taiba leader Shahid Mahmood, and Lashkar-e-Tayyiba terrorist Sajid Mir under the Al Qaeda Sanctions regime.