NEW DELHI: India on Tuesday criticised Pakistan over its announcement of a Rs 70 lakh reward for information leading to the arrest or conviction of Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) chief Masood Azhar, calling it a “phoney” move and asking Islamabad to take concrete action against the terror group chief.Responding to Pakistan maintaining the bounty on Azhar, ministry of external affairs spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said Islamabad’s announcement was unlikely to have any consequence.“Such gimmicks and attempts at hoodwinking people by Pakistan are nothing new. We have seen similar gimmicks in the past as well. For a state sponsor of terrorism to make such phoney announcements—we all know how hollow they are. Pakistan must take concrete action rather than make announcements that are ultimately of no consequence…”Pakistan has continued to list Azhar in the Federal Investigation Agency’s (FIA) “Red Book” of most-wanted terrorists and has retained a reward of PKR 7 million for information leading to his apprehension or conviction.Azhar, the founder and chief of JeM, is wanted in India in connection with several terror cases, including the 2001 Parliament attack. India has also linked JeM to the 2016 Pathankot airbase attack and the 2019 Pulwama bombing.His name was first included in the FIA’s Red Book in 2021 and has been retained in its 2026 edition. He is listed at serial number 1480 among 1,804 most-wanted terrorists.The FIA entry identifies Azhar as the head of Jaish-e-Mohammad and says the reward of up to Rs 7 million is for information leading directly to his “apprehension or conviction”.
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The cases cited against him in the FIA list were registered in Gujranwala, Multan and Lahore under provisions of Pakistan’s Anti-Terrorism Act.India has for years accused Pakistan of sheltering Azhar. Islamabad has maintained that he fled to Afghanistan, a claim rejected by Afghanistan’s Taliban government.Azhar was among the fugitives India sought from Pakistan following the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks, in which 10 Lashkar-e-Taiba terrorists killed 166 people.The latest development comes ahead of the Financial Action Task Force’s next plenary in Paris from October 26 to 30. Pakistan was placed on the FATF’s increased monitoring list, commonly known as the grey list, in 2018 and remained there until 2022.It was removed after completing commitments under two FATF action plans focused on strengthening its anti-money laundering and counter-terror financing framework and implementing targeted financial sanctions.
