No damage done in strike, claims JEM

ITS MOUTHPIECE SAID THE SITUATION IN THE REGION IS CRITICAL AND CLAIMED FALSE NEWS WAS BEING SPREAD ABOUT JAISH’S LOSSES

ISLAMABAD: Masood Azhar, the head of the proscribed Jaish-emohammed terrorist group, said in a purported column false news was being spread about the losses incurred by the JEM and about his health and all these were untrue. “Nothing like that. All are alive and all is well,” he wrote in his column.

In his most recent column written, under his pen name Saadi, in the latest edition of Jem’s weekly paper Al-qalam, Azhar challenged Indian prime minister Narendra Modi to a shooting or archery competition in a bid to prove how medically fit he is.

Hindustan Times couldn’t independently establish that Azhar is indeed the author of the piece but Al-qalam is widely known as Jem’s mouthpiece and Saadi is a well-known pseudonym of Azhar’s. Comparing his situation and that of his organization to that of Muslims during the time of Prophet Mohammed, Azhar said that both he and his supporters are well. Azhar said that the fire started by Kashmiris like Adil Ahmad Dar (the suicide bomber behind the Pulwama attack that killed 40 Indian troopers) was not going to be extinguished any time soon. Azhar also referred to terror activities in the Indian state of Jammu & Kashmir as a freedom movement and claimed it would spread across the region and out of the valley as time progressed because this is how such movements evolve.

Azhar wrote that the situation in the region is critical and drew attention to what was happening in Afghanistan.

On his own health, Azhar said that this was a topic on which he was usually reluctant to talk, but that given the propaganda against him, he was forced to write about his personal situation. He claimed he was fit and fine.

“I am fully well. My kidney and liver are perfectly fine.” He said that for 17 years he had never been to a hospital, and added that he had not consulted a doctor for several years.

He also said a Quran inspired diet have freed him from the clutches of ailments such as hypertension and diabetes. “There is nothing to worry about,” the JEM chief said, adding that in his spare moments he practised archery. “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.”