JAISH-E-MOHAMMAD
Also based in Punjab is Jaish-e-Mohammad, or Army of the Prophet Mohammad, founded by Masood Azhar on his release from prison in India in 1999.
The deal was an exchange for 155 hostages held on an Indian Airlines flight hijacked to Afghanistan’s southern city of Kandahar, the UN Security Council has said.
Pakistan banned the group in 2002 after it, along with LeT, was blamed for the 2001 attack on India’s parliament.
The group had links with Al-Qaeda, founded by Osama bin Laden, and the Taliban, the UN Security Council has said.
JeM is believed to be based in Pakistan’s central city of Bahawalpur, also in Punjab.
It has claimed responsibility for numerous suicide bombings in Kashmir, where India has battled an armed insurgency since the late 1980s, though violence has abated in recent years.
India said it attacked Bahawalpur’s Markaz Subhan Allah, which it called JeM’s headquarters, located about 100km from the border.
Despite Pakistan’s 2002 ban on JeM, United States and Indian authorities say it still operates openly there.
Azhar has disappeared from the public eye except for sporadic reports of his presence close to the city, where he runs a religious institution.
