Prodded by US, Is Pakistan Finally Set to Arrest Masood Azhar ahead of FATF Plenary?

Ahead of the October plenary of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), Pakistan could arrest terror mastermind Masood Azhar. Indian agencies believe that Pakistan will be forced to show the arrest of the Jaish-e-Mohammed chief, under pressure from the United States.

“It is correct that the US is aiding Pakistan as is evident from the F16 and World bank deals. But on terror, US wants action. We have reasons to believe that the US has conveyed a message on Azhar to Islamabad,” an official tracking Pakistan told CNN-News18.

Masood Azhar is one of India’s most wanted terrorists and his arrest would be seen by New Delhi as a huge victory, even though concerns remain whether post-arrest too Azhar would enjoy ISI hospitality.

India believes he is in a Pakistani safe house at Bahawalpur and has repeatedly used the FATF platform to seek Islamabad to act against him. Pakistan, however, has claimed that it has already fulfilled most of what the FATF sought. “Pakistan has now been rated complaint/largely compliant in 38 out of 40 FATF recommendations, which places us among the top compliant countries in the world,” the country’s foreign office spokesperson said on September 14.

The fight at FATF so far

In 2018, intergovernmental body FATF, on India’s insistence, enlisted eight Pakistan-based terror groups as “entities of concern”. Lashkar-e-Taiba, Jamaat-ud-Dawa, Jaish-e-Mohammed, Falah-e-Insaniat, al-Qaeda, ISIS, Haqqani Network, and the Taliban were named. Pakistan was asked to take action against the groups, their members, and their finance sources.

Pakistan arrested Hafiz Saeed, Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi, and others, and escaped the blacklist. Following the 2019 Pulwama attack, Pakistan arrested Rauf Asghar and informed the FATF. However, pending a crackdown against Sajid Mir and Masood Azhar meant FATF in 2020 reiterated action against the two.

Till October 2021, Pakistan claimed Mir was untraceable. It said 5,000 people were under surveillance in this regard. India’s 26/11 attacks dossier on Mir brought the numbers down to 57. In August 2021, Islamabad told the FATF that Mir had been tracked after receiving inputs from the “Lashkar-e-Taiba”. This was considered a huge victory by India since Pakistan so far had claimed Mir was dead. A fake death certificate was also presented to buttress this claim.

In April-May 2022, Mir was arrested, prosecuted, and convicted. India believes this was done under pressure to get off the grey list.

Pakistan in its communication with the FATF has claimed that it has complied with all action points, as Masood Azhar has also been convicted “in absentia”. India, however, has challenged this claim of compliance.

An anti-terrorism court (ATC) in Gujranwala had issued an arrest warrant against Azhar on charges of terror financing after the Pulwama attack. Ahead of the onsite visit of the FATF to Pakistan, Islamabad has written to Afghanistan to arrest Azhar. Islamabad in its letter to the Taliban has claimed that the JeM chief was hiding in the Nangarhar province of Afghanistan. The Taliban have rejected this claim outright. Taliban spokesperson Suhail Shaheen while speaking to CNN-News18 warned Pakistan “not to make claims without evidence”.

“We have a commitment not to allow anyone to use the soil of Afghanistan against any other country,” Shaheen said. “We warn Pakistan not to raise any claims without any evidence as it has a negative impact on bilateral relations. Claims without any evidence don’t serve any purpose…We don’t have any evidence of Azhar’s presence,” he said.

Just a ruse?

Officials point out that in October 2021, Pakistan in its submissions to the FATF had presented CDR (call detail records) of Masood Azhar, which made no mention of his location being outside Pakistan.

India believes Pakistan’s latest claim is just to ward off the FATF heat. “When the heat is unbearable, they just push terrorists 20 km across the Afghan border and then try to wash off their hands. It is the same strategy,” Dr Tara Kartha, former director of the National Security Council Secretariat (NSCS), told CNN-News18.

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