'Eliminated': BJP claims Masood Azhar’s brother and Jaish leader Abdul Rauf Azhar killed in airstrikes under Operation Sindoor

NEW DELHI: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Thursday claimed that Abdul Rauf Azhar, the younger brother of Jaish-e-Mohammed chief Masood Azhar and a designated global terrorist, was among those killed in Indian airstrikes under Operation Sindoor.The operation, launched in response to the Pahalgam terror attack that claimed 26 civilian lives, involved precision strikes at nine locations across Pakistan and Pakistan-Occupied Kashmir (PoK), including the Jaish headquarters in Bahawalpur.In a social media post, the BJP released an image of Abdul Rauf Azhar with the word “eliminated” stamped across it.Who was Abdul Rauf Azhar?Abdul Rauf Azhar, long considered the operational head of Jaish, was one of the key conspirators behind several major terror strikes, including the 1999 hijacking of Indian Airlines flight IC-814. The plane, with 190 passengers onboard, was diverted to Kandahar, forcing the government to release three jailed terrorists, including Masood Azhar, in exchange. Rauf was also linked to the 2001 Parliament attack and the 2016 Pathankot airbase assault.Rauf Azhar, who became Jaish’s de-facto leader in 2007, was designated a terrorist by the US Treasury in 2010 for “recruiting operatives and planning attacks in India and Afghanistan.” India had attempted to blacklist him at the UN in 2022, but China vetoed the move citing lack of evidence.