Jaish-e-Mohammed chief Masood Azhar in his column stated that false news was being spread about the losses incurred by the JeM and about his health and all these were untrue. He said “Nothing like that. All are alive and all is well.”
In the latest edition of JeM’s weekly paper Al-Qalam, under the name Saadi, Azhar challenged Indian prime minister Narendra Modi to a shooting or archery competition to prove how medically fit and fine he is.
Masood Azhar said that both he and his supporters are well. He claimed he was fit and fine. “I am fully well. My kidney and liver are perfectly fine.” He said that he had not consulted a doctor for several years and added that for 17 years he had never been to a hospital.
“Unlike Narendra Modi, I am fully fit. I challenge him to a game or archery or a shooting competition to prove I am more fit than he is,” he added. He also referred to terror activities in the Indian state of J&K as a freedom movement and claimed it would spread across the region.
After the Pulwama terror attack, Jaish-e-Mohammed chief Masood Azhar’s death went viral on the social media in India and was widely shared on the internet but there was no confirmation from any authoritative sources.
Reports claimed that after getting seriously injured in the air strike, Masood Azhar died in a hospital. However, later, Pakistan Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi accepted that Masood Azhar was in Pakistan and that he was not well.
Over the last two decades, Jaish-e-Mohammed has carried out multiple attacks on India, including the recent suicide bombing in Pulwama on February 14 which claimed the life of over 40 Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) soldiers.