Masood Azhar

That makes India’s job easier, one expert added. “There is no need to India to give concessions to Beijing over designation of Azhar as global terrorist as the terrorist has been struck with debilitating illness,” said a senior counter-terrorism official based in the Capital.

A dreaded Islamist, Indian officials hold Azhar responsible for a string of suicide terror attacks on Indian soil including the 2001 attack on Parliament, the 2005 attack in Ayodhya and the 2016 attack on Pathankot airbase. Though these attacks were partially successful, they were aimed to either force India to initiate armed hostilities against Pakistan or cause communal conflagration in India.

Azhar was freed by India and transported to Kandahar in exchange for hijacked passengers of IC-814 in 1999; that hijacking was supported by the then Taliban and al- Qaeda chiefs and the ISI.

The 814 hijacking was carried out by Athar Ibrahim, who is now handling terror strikes in Afghanistan and Baluchistan from the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa region, according to officials. The Jaish operation in Afghanistan has joined hands with Taliban, with whom it shares Deobandi ideology, for attacks against the Ashraf Ghani government in Ghazni province in August.

Azhar’s other brother, Rauf Asghar has taken over terror operations against India particularly in the state of Jammu and Kashmir. India and the US are currently discussing moves to brand Asghar a global terrorist by the Trump administration and the UN 1267 committee, say intelligence officials. Jaish is also acting as an arm of Pakistan deep state and is involved, according to the officials, in neutralising Baluchi tribal leaders opposed to Islamabad and Rawalpindi GHQ (general headquarters). tained to a sex scandal involving an assistant professor of Madurai Kamaraj University, who is alleged to have tried to lure girls in her college to extend sexual favours to senior University officials.

Nakkeeran published a cover photo in its current edition of the governor and assistant professor Nirmala Devi, and alleged in its report that Devi, who is under the custody of the crime investigation department’s crime branch, has said she met the governor four times. The governor is the chancellor of Madurai Kamaraj University to which the Devanga Arts College is affiliated.

Devi, an assistant professor at the Devanga Arts College in Aruppukottai of Virudhunagar district, was arrested in April last year after an audio clip of her purported conversation with her students was shared on social media. She was also heard claiming in the clip that she has close contact with the governor and senior officials.

Police also arrested Karuppasamy, a research scholar, and V Murugan, an assistant professor, in connection with the case.

Purohit has denied the allegations and said he does not know Devi.