Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) leader Maulana Masood Azhar is planning to launch suicide attacks in India during major elections rallies ahead of General Elections, reports claimed on Wednesday.
Azhar, one of the three terrorists released by India to end the Kandahar hijack in 1999, has also planned a plane hijack , with smaller airfields being the target.
Intelligence reports suggest that the JeM founder had recently in a rally held in Muzaffarabad, Pakistan-occupied Kashmir said that he has a team of suicide bombers ready to attack India.
“There are 313 fidayeen (fighters who are ready to die) in this gathering and if a call is given the number will go up to 3,000,” he told the rally held in the city of Muzaffarabad by telephone. A Reuters journalist who was present said a telephone was held next to a microphone which broadcast his comments to loudspeakers.
Earlier reports had claimed that Azhar had vowed to eliminate Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi if he becomes Prime Minister.
According to reports, JeM’s Pakistan-based founder Azhar had issued the warning in the outfit’s online weekly magazine al-Qalam.
Besides JeM founder Massod Azhar, Jamaat-ud-Dawah (JuD) chief Md Hafiz Saeed has also issued similar threats to Modi, who is BJP’s PM nominee for 2014 polls.
Azhar was arrested in Kashmir in 1994 while travelling on a forged Portuguese passport. India freed him and two other jailed Pakistani militants in 1999 in return for 155 passengers held hostage in an Indian Airlines aircraft that was hijacked to southern Afghanistan.
