 "Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl is photographed in an image sent by his kidnappers. File Photo/Reuters")
India has eliminated one of its most wanted terrorists with Operation Sindoor. The Indian armed forces’ missile strikes on terror targets in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) early Wednesday have reportedly killed Jaish-e Mohammad (JeM) terrorist Abdul Rauf Azhar.
India’s precision strikes on terror camps included JeM headquarters in Bahawalpur and Lashkar-e-Taiba’s (LeT) Markaz Taiba in Muridke. Operation Sindoor has neutralised several high-profile terrorist operatives responsible for spreading terror globally. Azhar is believed to be among those killed.
Let’s take a closer look.
Who was Abdul Rauf Azhar?
Abdul Rauf Azhar, the younger brother of JeM founder Masood Azhar , was behind several terror attacks in India.
Born in 1974 in Pakistan, he plotted the hijacking of the Indian Airlines aircraft IC 814. On December 24, 1999, five masked terrorists hijacked the Delhi-bound plane. The aircraft was eventually flown to Kandahar in Afghanistan, which was ruled by the Taliban.
 "Rauf Azhar: IC-814 hijack mastermind and terrorist behind Daniel Pearl's beheading reported killed in Op Sindoor")
 "Operation Sindoor: Ten family members of Jaish terrorist Masood Azhar killed")
The hijacking resulted in the release of three dreaded terrorists jailed in India — Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh, Mushtaq Zargar and Masood Azhar — in exchange for the nearly 150 passengers of the hijacked Indian Airlines Flight.
Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh was involved in the killing of the United States journalist Daniel Pearl in Pakistan. Masood Azhar went on to establish the Jaish-e-Mohammad group after his release.
As per a News18 report, Abdul Rauf Azhar was the operational head of JeM and the de facto chief when his brother Masood Azhar was not present. While staying in the shadows, the younger Azhar directed JeM’s several heinous terror attacks against India.
Rauf Azhar’s operatives were behind the 2001 Parliament attack that brought India and Pakistan to the brink of conflict.
In 2005, five terrorists attacked the Ram Janmabhoomi site in Uttar Pradesh’s Ayodhya and were shot dead by security personnel. As per News18, the terror attack fitted JeM’s ideology and Azhar’s playbook.
The JeM leader is also believed to have planned and supervised the infiltration of terrorists for the Pathankot attack. Jaish members had attacked the Indian Air Force (IAF) base at Punjab’s Pathankot, killing six security personnel, in 2016.
Azhar, also known as Mufti Abdul Rauf Asghar, was declared a terrorist by the US in 2010 for “recruiting operatives and planning attacks in India and Afghanistan."
However, India’s move to have him blacklisted by the United Nations Security Council in 2022 was blocked by China.
Killing of Daniel Pearl
On January 23, 2002, Daniel Pearl, a Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reporter, was on his way for an interview in Pakistan’s Karachi with a religious leader as part of his research into Islamist militants.
He was abducted near a hotel by terrorists who claimed to be from a group called the National Movement for the Restoration of Pakistani Sovereignty.
Four days later, the group sent an email with pictures of the 38-year-old journalist in chains. One of the pictures showed Pearl, who was Jewish, holding a newspaper and another with a gun to his head, as per a WSJ report.
The group demanded the release of all Pakistani terrorists held by the US. Despite public pleas from Pearl’s family and others, they did not free the journalist.
On February 1, 2002, Pearl was murdered by the terrorists. Weeks later, a videotape showing Pearl’s beheading was released, sending shockwaves across the world.
The case drew global attention. Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh, a British-Pakistani terrorist, was found to be the mastermind of the kidnapping and killing of Pearl. He was convicted in 2002.
According to lawyers of Pearl’s family, Sheikh helped in organising the kidnapping and detention of the journalist, before directing his captors to kill him, reported Al Jazeera.
In 2007, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed of the al-Qaeda terror group claimed responsibility for Pearl’s murder.
Pakistan ’s Supreme Court ordered the release of Sheikh in 2021.
Operation Sindoor brings justice to Daniel Pearl
With the killing of Abdul Rauf Azhar, the Indian armed forces have avenged several terror attacks carried out on Indian soil involving the JeM leader. Azhar, whose hijacking of the IC 814 flight led to the release of the mastermind of Pearl’s killing, has been brought to justice.
“Rauf Azhar’s role in orchestrating the IC-814 hijacking directly facilitated the release of Omar Saeed Sheikh, a key Al-Qaeda operative who went on to kidnap and murder Daniel Pearl, an American-Jewish journalist with the Wall Street Journal. Pearl’s brutal execution in 2002 shocked the conscience of the world and remains a defining example of the global threat posed by state-protected terror networks,” government sources said.
“By eliminating Rauf Azhar, India has not only delivered justice for countless Indian victims of terror, but also taken a step toward closure in the long, painful memory of Daniel Pearl’s killing — a case that symbolised the dangers faced by journalists, the Jewish community, and the broader democratic world,” they added.
With inputs from agencies