Months after India carried out ‘Operation Sindoor’, a major counter-terror strike targeting Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK), Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) commander Masood Ilyas Kashmiri has admitted that the family of terror chief Masood Azhar was destroyed in the attacks on Bahawalpur.
Jaish-e-Mohamad top commander Masood ilyas kashmiri admits that On 7th May his leader Masood Azhar’s family was torn into pieces in Bahawalpur attack by Indian forces.
Look at the number of gun-wielding security personnel in the background. According to ISPR… pic.twitter.com/OLls70lpFy
— OsintTV (@OsintTV) September 16, 2025
In a viral video circulating online, Kashmiri can be heard describing how the Indian armed forces entered their stronghold and carried out the strikes.
“Embracing terrorism, we fought Delhi, Kabul and Kandahar for protecting the borders of this country. After sacrificing everything, on May 7, Maulana Masood Azhar’s family was torn apart by Indian forces in Bahawalpur,” Kashmiri said in Urdu, surrounded by armed security personnel.
Operation Sindoor: Strikes on Terror Hubs in Pakistan and PoK
The admission comes weeks after Indian forces conducted coordinated overnight strikes under Operation Sindoor in retaliation to a deadly terror attack in Jammu and Kashmir’s Pahalgam that killed 26 civilians.
During the operation, nine terror facilities linked to Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) and Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) were targeted across Pakistan and PoK. Pakistan later confirmed that sites in Bahawalpur, Kotli and Muridke—long regarded as terror hubs—were hit.
ALSO READ: Who are the LeT terrorists killed in Indian strikes? Masood Azhar’s brother-in-law is one of them
Bahawalpur, Pakistan’s 12th largest city, was a key target as it serves as JeM’s nerve centre. The city, located about 400 km from Lahore, houses the group’s headquarters at Jamia Masjid Subhan Allah, also known as the Usman-o-Ali campus.
Following the strikes, Pakistani media had reported that Masood Azhar himself acknowledged the killing of 10 family members in the Bahawalpur attack.
Azhar, proscribed by the United Nations and wanted for decades of terror activities against India, has been in hiding. In June, Pakistani politician Bilawal Bhutto Zardari claimed Islamabad was unaware of his whereabouts, stating that Pakistan would be “happy to” arrest him if India provided credible information on his location.
