Jaish-e-Mohammed

Not to be confused with Jeish Muhammad.
"JeM" redirects here. For other uses, see Jem (disambiguation).

Jaish-e-Mohammed
جيشِ محمدؐ
LeaderMaulana Masood Azhar
Supreme CommanderAbdul Rauf Azhar
Dates of operation2000–present
Allegiance Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan (formerly) [1]
Pakistan Pakistan[2]
Islamic State - Khorasan Province[3]
Group(s)Al-Akhtar Trust (Active in Pakistan)
Lashkar-e-Mustafa (Active in Kashmir)[4]
HeadquartersBahawalpur, Pakistan
IdeologyDeobandi jihadism[5]
Sunni Islamism[6]
Islamic fundamentalism[6]
Notable attacks2016 Uri attack
2019 Pulwama attack
Part ofUnited Jihad Council Operation Tupac[7]
AlliesState allies

Non-State allies

OpponentsState opponents
Battles and wars
Designated as a terrorist group by

Jaish-e-Mohammed (Urdu: جيشِ محمدؐ, romanized: Jaysh-i Muḥammad, lit. 'Army of Muhammad'; abbreviated as JeM) is a Pakistan-based Deobandi jihadist terrorist group active in Kashmir.[17][18][19][20][21] The group's primary motive is to separate Kashmir from India and merge it into Pakistan.

Since its inception in 2000, the group has carried out several attacks in the state of Jammu and Kashmir. It portrays Kashmir as a "gateway" to the entire India, whose Muslims are also deemed to be in need of liberation. It has carried out several attacks primarily in the Indian administered Jammu and Kashmir.[6][22] It also maintained close relations with the Taliban and Al-Qaeda in Afghanistan and continues to be allied with these groups.[23][9][10]

JeM was apparently created with the support of Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI),[5][24][25] which uses it to fight in Kashmir and other places, and continues to provide it backing.[26][27] The JeM has been banned in Pakistan since 2002, but resurfaced under other names.[28][29][30] Its apparent variants openly continue to operate several facilities in the country.[31][32]

According to B. Raman, Jaish-e-Mohammed is viewed as the "deadliest" and "the principal Islamic terrorist organisation in Jammu and Kashmir".[19][33] The group was responsible for several terror attacks: the 2001 attack on Jammu and Kashmir legislative assembly, the 2001 Indian Parliament attack, the 2016 Pathankot airbase attack, the 2016 attack on the Indian Mission in Mazar-i-Sharif, the 2016 Uri attack, and the 2019 Pulwama attack, each of which has had strategic consequences for India–Pakistan relations.[34] The group has been designated as a terrorist organisation by Pakistan, Russia, Australia, Canada,[14] India, New Zealand, the United Arab Emirates, the European Union,[35] the United Kingdom,[36] the United States, and the United Nations.[37]

In 2016, JeM was suspected of being responsible for an attack on the Pathankot airbase in India. The Indian government,[38] and some other sources, accused Pakistan of assisting JeM in conducting the attack.[26][27] Pakistan denied assisting JeM, and arrested several members of JeM in connection with the attack,[39] who were then released by the security establishment according to a report in Dawn.[40] Pakistan called the report an "amalgamation of fiction and fabrication".[41] In February 2019, the group took responsibility for a suicide bombing attack on a security convoy in the Pulwama district that killed 40 security personnel, named as one of the largest attacks in recent years.[42][43]

  1. ^ "Many Jihadi Groups In Asia & Africa Pledge Allegiance To Taliban Leader, Group Sources". 9 October 2024.
  2. ^ "Many Jihadi Groups In Asia & Africa Pledge Allegiance To Taliban Leader, Group Sources". 9 October 2024.
  3. ^ "Many Jihadi Groups In Asia & Africa Pledge Allegiance To Taliban Leader, Group Sources". 9 October 2024.
  4. ^ "Kashmir Tigers: Another militant outfit emerges, fourth in two years". 23 January 2021. Archived from the original on 22 October 2021. Retrieved 22 October 2021.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link)
  5. ^ a b Moj, Deoband Madrassah Movement (2015), p. 98: "Deobandis like Masood Azhar, a graduate of Jamia Binouria who later set up a jihadist outfit named Jaish-e-Muhammad (JeM) in 2000, reportedly at the behest of Pakistan's military establishment."
  6. ^ a b c "Jaish-e-Mohammad: A profile". BBC News. 6 February 2002. Archived from the original on 28 April 2022. Retrieved 2 December 2009.
  7. ^ John Pike (25 July 2002). "Directorate for Inter-Services Intelligence". Federation of American Scientists. Archived from the original on 15 May 2008.
  8. ^ "Taliban's Kashmir policy: Rhetoric, ideology, and interests". Observer Research Foundation. Archived from the original on 5 April 2023. Retrieved 21 September 2022. Essentially, JeM maintains eight camps in Afghanistan's Nangahar—three of which are under the direct control of the Taliban.
  9. ^ a b Popovic, The Perils of Weak Organization (2015), pp. 921, 925, 926.
  10. ^ a b Riedel, Deadly Embrace (2012): "The answer is JeM's friend and ally, Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda." (p. 69) "Or as Pakistan's interior minister Rehman Malik has put it, "They—Lashkar-e-Janghvi, the Sipah-e-Sohaba Pakistan, and Jaish-e-Mohammad—are allies of the Taliban and al Qaeda" and do indeed pursue many of the same goals." (p. 100)
  11. ^ a b Pakistan Archived 19 March 2023 at the Wayback Machine. Mapping Militants. Stanford University.
  12. ^ Indian Mujahideen Archived 9 September 2022 at the Wayback Machine. Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism.
  13. ^ "People's Anti-Fascist Front (PAFF) – Jammu & Kashmir". Tracking Terrorism. Archived from the original on 4 October 2022. Retrieved 26 October 2022.
  14. ^ a b "Currently listed entities". Public Safety Canada. Government of Canada. 21 December 2018. Archived from the original on 28 July 2021. Retrieved 13 August 2021.
  15. ^ Freedman, Benjamin (May 2010). "Officially Blacklisted Extremist/Terrorist (Support) Organizations: a Comparison of Lists from six Countries and two International Organizations" (PDF). Perspectives on Terrorism. 4 (2): 46–52. JSTOR 26298448. Archived (PDF) from the original on 16 July 2021. Retrieved 16 July 2021.
  16. ^ "BRICS declaration names Pakistan-based terror groups in diplomatic victory for India". Mint.com. 4 September 2017. Archived from the original on 20 April 2021. Retrieved 14 February 2021.
  17. ^ Bhattacharjee, Yudhijit (19 March 2020). "The Terrorist Who Got Away". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Archived from the original on 21 October 2020. Retrieved 20 May 2021.
  18. ^ Jaffrelot, The Pakistan Paradox (2015), p. 520: "as soon as he was freed, Masood Azhar was back in Pakistan where he founded a new jihadist movement, Jaish-e-Mohammed, which became one of the jihadist groups the ISI used in Kashmir and elsewhere."
  19. ^ a b Cronin et al., Foreign Terrorist Organizations (FTOs) (2004), pp. 40–43
  20. ^ Cronin et al., Foreign Terrorist Organizations (FTOs) (2004), p. 40: "The JEM is a Pakistan-based, militant Islamic group founded by Maulana Masood Azhar in March 2000."
  21. ^ Moj, Deoband Madrassah Movement (2015), p. 98: "Deobandis like Masood Azhar, a graduate of Jamia Binouria who later set up a jihadist outfit named Jaish-e-Muhammad (JeM) in 2000, reportedly at the behest of Pakistan's military establishment."
  22. ^ "Attack May Spoil Kashmir Summit". SpaceWar.com. Archived from the original on 11 February 2021. Retrieved 20 May 2015.
  23. ^ Moj, Deoband Madrassah Movement (2015), p. 98: "In addition to guerilla activities in Kashmir, JeM kept close ties with the Taliban as well as al-Qaeda in Afghanistan."
  24. ^ Rashid, Descent into Chaos (2012), Glossary: "Jaish-e-Mohammed— ... militant group... formed in 2000 by the ISI and Maulana Masud Azhar in the aftermath of the hijacking of an Air India plane to Kandahar."
  25. ^ Riedel, Deadly Embrace (2012), p. 69: "the ISI-supported, if not created, Jaish-e-Muhammad (JeM) terror organization."
  26. ^ a b C. Christine Fair (12 January 2016), "Bringing back the Dead: Why Pakistan Used the Jaishe-Mohammad to Attack an Indian Airbase", Huffington Post, This interpretation of the attack as 'peace spoiler' misses the strategic element of the ISI's revival of Jaish-e-Mohammad...
  27. ^ a b Bruce Riedel (5 January 2016). "Blame Pakistani Spy Service for Attack on Indian Air Force Base". The Daily Beast. Archived from the original on 3 May 2017. Retrieved 8 October 2016.: "His group is technically illegal in Pakistan but enjoys the continuing patronage of the ISI."
  28. ^ Riedel, Deadly Embrace (2012), p. 70: "But the ban was only a formality; neither organization [LeT and JeM] was seriously disrupted or dismantled. Hardly touched by the crackdown, LeT was spared the most."
  29. ^ Majidyar, Could Taliban take over Punjab? (2010), p. 3: "Pakistani jails have revolving doors, and even high-profile detainees like JeM leader Maulana Masood Azhar and LeT chief Hafiz Muhammad Saeed were soon free men. Banned organizations resurfaced under new names or as charities..."
  30. ^ Gregory, The ISI and the War on Terrorism (2007), pp. 1022–1023: "However, most of those arrested were subsequently released without any charges and the separatist/Islamic Jihadis groups, such as the ISI creations Lashkar-e-Toiba and Jaish-e-Mohammed, have been permitted to re-form, some of them under different names."
  31. ^ Cite error: The named reference mcclatchy was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  32. ^ Cite error: The named reference livesfreely was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  33. ^ Raman, B. (2001). "Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM)—A Backgrounder". South Asia Analysis Group. Archived from the original on 16 June 2010.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link)
  34. ^ Praveen Swami, How significant is Jaish-e-Muhammad in Kashmir today? Archived 11 November 2020 at the Wayback Machine, The Indian Express, 10 November 2017.
  35. ^ "Parliament of Australia – Jaish e Mohammed (JeM)" (PDF). Parliament of Australia. Archived (PDF) from the original on 25 July 2022. Retrieved 25 July 2022.
  36. ^ Cite error: The named reference Proscribed was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  37. ^ "Sanctions List Materials—United Nations Security Council". un.org. Archived from the original on 16 February 2019. Retrieved 15 February 2019.
  38. ^ "pathankot terror attack case" (PDF). National Investigation Agency.
  39. ^ "Pakistan arrests Jaish members in connection with India air base attack". Dawn. 13 January 2016. Archived from the original on 14 December 2022. Retrieved 18 October 2016.
  40. ^ Cyril Almeida (6 October 2016), "Exclusive: Act against militants or face international isolation, civilians tell military", Dawn, archived from the original on 17 September 2023, retrieved 6 October 2016
  41. ^ "Pakistan: Cyril Almeida of Dawn 'on Exit Control List'". Al Jazeera. 11 October 2016. Archived from the original on 15 August 2019. Retrieved 16 July 2021.
  42. ^ "India will 'completely isolate' Pakistan". BBC News. 15 February 2019. Archived from the original on 15 February 2019. Retrieved 16 July 2021.
  43. ^ Gurung, Shaurya Karanbir (20 February 2019). "What happened at Pulwama and history of terror attacks on convoys". The Economic Times. India. Archived from the original on 16 July 2021. Retrieved 16 July 2021.