Masood Azhar Forms Jaish's Women Brigade Months After Loss In Op Sindoor

Sources said the wing will be led by United Nations-designated terrorist Masood Azhar's sister Sadiya Azhar.

Pakistan-based terrorist group Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM), which suffered a crippling blow during Operation Sindoor, has stepped up efforts to revive its footprint, including in India, and announced the formation of its first ever women's wing. 

The Masood Azhar-led terror group, which has traditionally barred women from participating in armed or combat missions, on Wednesday announced a shift in strategy through the formation of "Jamaat-ul-Mominaat", recruitment for which began at Markaz Usman-o-Ali in Bahawalpur. 

Notably, during Operation Sindoor, the Indian forces targeted the headquarters of JeM in Bahawalpur, located around 100 km inside Pakistan's southern Punjab province. 

Sources said the wing will be led by United Nations-designated terrorist Masood Azhar's sister Sadiya Azhar, whose husband Yusuf Azhar was killed after the Indian forces struck JeM's headquarters at Markaz Subhanallah during Operation Sindoor. 

The outfit has started enlisting wives of its commanders as well as economically vulnerable women studying at its centers in Bahawalpur, Karachi, Muzaffarabad, Kotli, Haripur, and Mansehra, the sources said. 

Terror groups such as the ISIS, Boko Haram, Hamas and LTTE have a history of deploying women as suicide attackers but those like the JeM and Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) have largely avoided doing so.

It appears as though the JeM seeks to deploy female suicide bombers in their future terror operations, the sources said. Masood Azhar and his brother, Talha al-Saif, jointly approved the decision to include women into the terrorist organisation's operational framework, leading to the establishment of the exclusive female brigade, the sources added. 

Online networks in India

The sources also said the "Jamaat-ul-Mominaat" is expected to extend its operations in India, through online networks in Jammu and Kashmir, Uttar Pradesh and parts of south India. Their activities are likely to spread through various social media platforms and WhatsApp groups.

The brigade seeks to lure women in the name of religion and use them for carrying out the terror group's activities. A JeM circular on the brigade features images of Mecca and Medina, and contains emotional content, targeting educated and urban Muslim women.

The JeM is linked to several high-profile attacks in India, including the 2001 Parliament attack and the 2019 Pulwama suicide bombing.

Azhar earlier claimed that 10 members of his family and four of his aides were killed in the operation. A statement attributed to Azhar, who was arrested in India in 1994 and released after the Air India IC 814 hijack, said that those killed in the strike were his elder sister, her husband, a nephew and his wife, a niece, and five children from the extended family.