New Delhi, May 9 (UNI) India’s Operation Sindoor, the cross-border strikes that demolished nine terror camps located in Pakistan and Pakistan Occupied Kashmir to avenge the Pahalgam terror attack, have also in a way brought some justice in the brutal 2002 beheading of Jewish-American journalist Daniel Pearl.
Amid unconfirmed reports that senior Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) commander Abdul Rauf Azhar was killed in the May 7 cross-border strike on the Bahawalpur camp of the UN proscribed terror group, a picture doing the rounds on social media shows senior Pakistani army personnel, ISI officials and Muslim clerics at the funeral of the terrorists killed in the Indian strike.
Judea Pearl, the father of Daniel Pearl, tagging the picture on X, poses the question:
“I wish these dignitaries could tell us: "What exactly are you mourning? What role models you wish your children to revere? What have you learned from this man?”
Abdul Rauf Azhar was a co-conspirator in the 2002 abduction and murder of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl.
As part of Operation Sindoor, to avenge the brutal killing of 26 men by Islamist terrorists linked to Pakistan, India launched airstrikes targeting nine locations across Pakistan and POK linked to the US-designated foreign terrorist organizations Hizbul Mujahideen, Lashkar-e-Taiba, and Azhar’s own organization, Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM).
Azhar was one of the masterminds behind the 1999 hijacking of Indian Airlines Flight IC-814, which resulted in the release of three men held by India on terrorism charges, including Omar Saeed Sheikh, who was later convicted in the kidnapping and murder of Pearl.
Azhar was also implicated in the 2001 attack on the Indian Parliament and the 2016 attack on the Pathankot air base, both carried out by JeM. He assumed leadership of the group in 2007 and was listed as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist by the US Treasury Department in 2010.
Daniel Pearl, an American Jewish journalist, was serving as the South Asia bureau chief for The Wall Street Journal. An investigative journalist, Pearl was reportedly scheduled to interview a religious leader as part of his research into Islamic extremism.
He was abducted from his Karachi hotel on January 23, 2002, by Pakistani-British terrorist Omar Saeed Sheikh.
On February 1, 2002, Pearl was brutally decapitated by Al Qaeda leader Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the mastermind of the 9/11 Twin Tower attacks, and the video of the beheading was posted online, shocking the world. Azhar is the one who had brought Pearl to him.
Daniel Pearl’s father Judea, in a post on X, said:
“I want to thank all of you who reached out to me today in response to the news that India's military forces have eliminated Abdul Rauf Azhar—a man described as 'responsible for the kidnapping and murder of my son, Daniel.'
“I want to clarify: Azhar was a Pakistani extremist and leader of the terrorist organization Jaish-e-Mohammed. While his group was not directly involved in the plot to abduct Danny, it was indirectly responsible.
“Azhar orchestrated the hijacking that led to the release of Omar Sheikh—the man who lured Danny into captivity. Sheikh was later sentenced to death but ultimately released from prison and kept in a "Government Safe House".
“Thank you again for all your understanding and support, and let Danny's life remind us of who we are and what we stand for.”
Asra Nomani, who was with WSJ and was a colleague of Daniel Pearl, posted on May 8 when she heard that India had bombed the Bahawalpur camp of Jaish-e-Mohammed founder Hafiz Saeed.
“Bahawalpur
“I still have chills in my heart from when I first heard that town’s name in late January 2002. For the 23 years since, I have reported on how Pakistani intelligence and military leaders have used that city — Bahawalpur — in the southern province of Punjab as a base for its homegrown domestic terrorists.
“When I heard India bombed training camps in Pakistan this week in Operation Sindoor, in response to a Pakistani terrorist rampage in India’s Kashmir state, I had one city’s name on my lips: Bahawalpur.
“Did India bomb Bahawalpur?
“It did. I knew then India was striking actual hubs for Pakistan’s homegrown domestic terrorism.
“Why do I know?
“My friend, WSJ reporter Danny Pearl, went to Bahawalpur in December 2001 with a notebook and a pen. Gen. Pervez Musharraf had just promised he was shutting down Pakistan’s militant groups after a strike by Pakistan’s terrorists against the Parliament in India, and Danny reported on the militant offices in Bahawalpur.
“He literally knocked on their doors. Dear Dr. @yudapearl, this story is a window into Danny’s reporting enterprise. And because people will wonder: Danny was no cowboy. This was a calculated low-risk reporting trip because no journalist had been targeted for kidnapping in Pakistan. Around that time, Danny sent me an email: “I’m anxious to go to Afghanistan, but I’m not anxious to die.”
“What did Danny learn?
“The militant training camps were open for business in Bahawalpur.
“On Jan. 23, 2002, Danny left a home I had rented in Karachi, Pakistan, for an interview.
“I learned Danny’s fixer, Asif Farooqi, had arranged an interview for Danny through a man named “Arif.” Danny didn’t know it but Arif was the PR man for a militant group, Harkutul Mujahadeen. What was Arif’s hometown? Bahawalpur.
“The police launched a manhunt to find Arif in Bahawalpur. We learned Arif’s family faked a funeral for Arif. Police found him trying to board a bus in Muzaffarabad, across the country by Pakistan’s border with Kashmir.
“It is another town India said it bombed terrorist training facilities.
“Arif had handed Danny off to Omar Sheikh,a British-Pakistani dropout from the London School of Economics, radicalized in the 1990s in London mosques. He went to Pakistan to train in these militant training camps. Then he kidnapped tourists in India. He was caught and jailed but on Dec. 31, 1999, he was traded for hostages in the hijacking of Indian Airlines Flight 814.
“Omar Sheikh was freed with Pakistani terrorist leader Masood Azhar, whose family was allegedly killed this week by India’s air strike in Bahawalpur.
“Did Pakistan jail Omar Sheikh and Masood Azhar when they returned to Pakistan with a third terrorist, freed from India’s jails?
“No. Pakistan’s military and intelligence gave them safe passage. They used them as weapons against India. But in fact these domestic terrorists have waged war against innocents in Pakistan, like civil society activists, Benazir Bhutto, Punjab Governor Salman Taseer, schoolchildren and countless others.
“Their extremism has ruined Pakistan, and Pakistanis can’t blame America for creating the mujahideen to fight the Soviets in the 1980s.
“Pakistan has had a duty to dismantle those terrorist bases — for even the safety of its own people. What India is doing is a strategic attack on terrorist bases Pakistani military and intelligence should have eliminated but never did in their obsession to take over Kashmir.
“You will see parallels in the propaganda messages against India and Israel. Like Hamas, Pakistani terrorists crossed a border to kill. Now, Pakistani propagandists call themselves victims of their “fascist” “colonizer” neighbor.”
“According to my years of reporting on Danny’s murder for the @DPearlProject. Abdul Rauf Azhar was not directly invoked in Danny’s kidnapping and murder but he was very important because he freed Omar Sheikh who went on to kidnap Danny.
“Omar Sheikh organized Danny’s kidnapping. A total of at least 27 Pakistani militants were involved in the plot, many foot soldiers from Masood Azhar’s Jihad Inc. network.
“Only 4 men were convicted in the courts and essentially freed in 2020 by the courts despite our judicial efforts to keep them in jail. Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, who organized the 9/11 attack, allegedly beheaded Danny and he is in Guantanamo.”
In a post on May 9, she writes:
“I will just lay out the facts so that everybody can understand the significance of the Bahawalpur attack and the killing of terrorist Abdul Rauf Azhar.
“Bottomline: Abdul Rauf Azhar freed from jail Omar Sheikh, the man who kidnapped Danny Pearl, but Azhar was not the man who murdered Danny. It’s important Azhar was killed but I just want facts clear.
“Dec. 24, 1999 — Bahawalpur-based terrorist Abdul Rauf Azhar plotted the kidnapping of Indian Airlines Flight 814 from Kathmandu, Nepal, and diverted it to Kandahar, Afghanistan. His brother Ibrahim was a hijacker.
“Dec. 31, 1999 — In exchange for the release of the plane’s passengers and crew, India released Abdul Rauf Azhar’s terrorist brother, Masood Azhar, kidnapper Omar Sheikh and terrorist Mushtaq Ahmed Zargar from its jails.
“Jan. 23, 2002 — Omar Sheikh kidnapped Danny Pearl with a network of men.
“The Azhar brothers were not involved. Omar Sheikh hired foot soldiers in the militant groups.
“About Feb. 1, 2002 — Three men entered the compound where Danny was held captive, and they carried two weapons: a knife and camera. The mastermind of the 9/11 attacks, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, confessed to beheading Danny with his “blessed right hand.” The other two men were allegedly his nephews. One, Ammar Al-Baluch, is on trial in Guantanamo for 9/11, with his uncle.
“The killing of Abdul Rauf Azhar is very significant because he freed the man who kidnapped Danny. I don’t want his involvement to be stated incorrectly. KSM has yet to be held accountable for Danny’s murder.”
Indian Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri, asked about the connection of Bahawalpur and Daniel Pearl’s killing, said today:
“Well, you are right. Bahawalpur is the headquarters of the Jaish-e-Mohammad terrorist group that is proscribed by the United Nations. Its leader, Maulana Masood Azhar, is a proscribed individual.
“You brought up the connection with the tragic death, or killing of Daniel Pearl of the Wall Street Journal. The Jaish-e-Mohammad was in some way directly or indirectly responsible for the death of Daniel Pearl.
“But the real connection is through Ahmad Omar Saeed Sheikh, the British-Pakistani jihadi who was held in India, but was finally released in 2000. He was the person who lured Daniel Pearl to his … eventually leading to his murder. So these are all obviously connected figures, connected individuals, connected institutions. And the attack on Bahawalpur, on that facility of the Jaish-e-Mohammad in Bahawalpur is, I would imagine, a fitting part of this unfortunate incident.”
Bill Roggio, Senior Fellow and Editor of FDD’s Long War Journal, wrote in an article on the Jaish leader’s reported death in the Indian strike:
“The death of Abdul Rauf Azhar, if confirmed, is a welcome development and long overdue. Azhar, a U.S.-listed Specially Designated Global Terrorist who served as a senior leader in Jaish-e-Mohammad and took control of the group for a time after his brother Masood, its founder, went underground. Jaish-e-Mohammad has been implicated in numerous terror attacks in the region, including the kidnapping and brutal murder and beheading of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl. JeM, which is backed by the Pakistani state, is a close ally of al-Qaeda. India did the world a favor and has provided a long overdue measure of justice to the Pearl family.”
“In many ways, Daniel Pearl’s savage murder just five months after the 9/11 atrocities marked the beginning of a new wave of intense antisemitism driven by Islamist organizations. His final words — ‘My father is Jewish, my mother is Jewish, I am Jewish’ — resonate as loudly now, nearly a quarter of a century later, as they did back then,” said Ben Cohen, Senior Analyst and Rapid Response Director with FDD.
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