Pulwama attack was carried out by a Kashmiri: Masood Azhar

Facing international pressure in the wake of Pulwama attack, Jaish chief Masood Azhar in a purported audio has tried to delink Pakistan from the suicide bombing in Kashmir that killed 40 soldiers last week.

“Kashmiri freedom struggle doesn’t need any foreign support. The attacker was a Kashmiri and it happened near Srinagar, not near the border of Pakistan,” Azhar said, adding that Pakistan should not be blamed for the attack, reported news18.com.

He asked the Pakistan government ‘not to succumb to the pressure from India’.

“Pulwama attack was carried out by a Kashmiri on murderous India and as usual it is crying all over the world. But this time it didn’t work,” he said adding that even the US President didn’t mention it or condemn it. “European Union also didn’t put forth any statement on it and Chinese media didn’t report it,” he said in the audio clip that is being circulated in the Valley.

The attack on February 14 was carried out by 21-yearold Adil Ahmad Dar, a resident of south Kashmir’s Pulwama, after he rammed an explosive-ladden car into the fourth bus of a CRPF convoy near Lethpora area of Pulwama.

“If the government of Pakistan remains strong, Modi will go further backwards. But if our government comes under the pressure of Modi and accepts some of his demands, it can help him regain his position,” he said.

India is not being heard globally this time, Azhar said, given the attacker was a Kashmiri.

Azhar is the chief of Pakistan-based militant outfit Jaish-e-Mohammed. He was released in December 1999 by India in exchange of passengers of the Indian Airlines IC-814 that was hijacked and flown to Kandahar.

He subsequently founded the Jaish in 2000 with help from Pakistan’s intelligence agency ISI, the then Taliban regime in Afghanistan and also Osama Bin Laden. In 2001, USA declared it a terrorist organisation and a year later, Pakistan was forced to ban the outfit.