A top commander of the Pakistan-based terrorist group Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) has publicly acknowledged that Operation Sindoor by India devastated the family of UN-designated terrorist Masood Azhar.
In a video, now viral on social media, JeM commander Masood Ilyas Kashmiri is seen addressing a group of armed militants. The video offers the first on-record confirmation from within the group of the damage inflicted by Indian forces during the highly coordinated operation.
"Embracing terrorism, we fought Delhi, Kabul and Kandahar to protect this country's borders. After sacrificing everything, on May 7, Maulana Masood Azhar's family was torn apart by Indian forces in Bahawalpur," Kashmiri is heard saying.
The strikes, carried out jointly by the Indian Army, Navy, and Air Force, were launched in response to the April 22 terror attack in Pahalgam, which killed 26 civilians.
Following the strikes, Pakistani media reports, citing JeM sources, claimed that ten members of Azhar's extended family were killed, including his elder sister, her husband, a nephew and his wife, a niece and five children. Four of Azhar's close operational aides were also reportedly eliminated.
One of the most significant casualties was Mohammad Yusuf Azhar—Masood Azhar's brother-in-law and a top JeM figure implicated in the 1999 hijacking of Indian Airlines Flight IC-814. He was under an Interpol Red Corner Notice and had long been on India's most-wanted list for orchestrating and training militants for cross-border terror strikes.
