New Delhi, March 31 (IANS) The death of Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) chief Masood Azhar’s brother Hakim Mohammad Tahir Anwar has widened the vacuum within the leadership of the terror outfit.

An Intelligence Bureau official said that Anwar was no ordinary figure in the Jaish-e-Mohammad. He led the armed cadres of the Jaish-e-Mohammad, and his death would deal a deadly blow to the ground operations of the outfit.

The official added that Anwar’s death comes at a time when the outfit is struggling to re-group. Multiple attempts have been made to revive the terror group, which was badly hit during Operation Sindoor, launched by the Indian Armed Forces to avenge the Pahalgam attack.

The official added that Azhar today is a broken man after he lost several of his family members during Operation Sindoor. Multiple requests by him to address the cadre directly have failed as Azhar refuses to step out. This is due to his being demoralised and also for security reasons, as he is high on India’s list of most wanted terrorists.

In this revival phase, Anwar, along with another brother, Ibrahim Azhar, was managing operations. Ibrahim was in charge of operations in Afghanistan, while Anwar was leading the cadres.

Another official explained that when one looks at the structure of the Jaish-e-Mohammad, it is very much family-driven. Azhar and his four brothers ran a tight ship and would not trust outsiders to head top positions.

In the aftermath of Operation Sindoor, Azhar said that 10 of his family members and four of his aides were killed. The family included his elder sister, her husband, a nephew and his wife, a niece and five children from his family.

The official said that at a time when Azhar and the Jaish-e-Mohammad were coping with the loss of family members, the death of Anwar only adds to the grief.

For the Jaish-e-Mohammad to break, the family has to be weakened. This makes a lot of change in the manner in which the outfit would function.

Finding a replacement for the family members is a hard task, as there are trust issues within the Azhar family when it comes to handing over top jobs to outsiders. Azhar also has a close circle around him, which comprises his aides.

Azhar would have no choice but to appoint outsiders from his family to replace those he lost.

An assessment by the Intelligence agencies states that this would make the revival of the outfit very slow. The outsiders would first have to gain the trust of the family, and only then can they deal directly with the cadres. All this would take time, the assessment states.

In the meantime, the Jaish-e-Mohammad would try to indulge in propaganda, just to keep the cadres interested. Further, they would try to help set up modules in India that are inspired by the Jaish-e-Mohammad’s ideology.

Attempts to set up modules similar to the one that was busted in Faridabad are also being made.

Like the Lashkar-e-Taiba, the Jaish-e-Mohammad also wants to have more homegrown modules in India, rather than try to send terrorists in from Pakistan, at least for now.

The Indian agencies and armed forces are on very high alert, and this has made infiltrations a nightmare for these terror groups, officials say.

The news relating to Anwar’s death was shared by Masood Azhar himself. A letter was circulated, supposedly written by Azhar, in which he said, “My dear elder brother Hakeem Mohammad Tahir Anwar has passed away.” The cause or the nature of the death is being ascertained. The message also said that the funeral prayers will be held at Jamia Usman-o-Ali in Bahawalpur.

–IANS

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