Pakistan, Afghanistan in ‘diplomatic spat’ over JeM chief Masood Azhar

Islamabad [Pakistan], September 15 (ANI): Pakistan and Afghanistan are engaged in a fresh diplomatic spat over Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) chief Maulana Masood Azhar.
According to reports, Pakistan had written a letter to the Taliban regarding the presence of Masood Azhar, stating that the JeM chief is likely to be in the Nangarhar and Kunhar areas of the Afghan province.
Shafqat Ali wrote in the Pakistan newspaper The Nation, that Islamabad reportedly demanded that the defunct JeM chief must be located and handed over to Pakistan.
Yesterday, Talibani spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid has denied that Azhar was in Afghanistan, and said he is, in fact, in Pakistan, as per Tolo News.
“The leader of the Jaesh-e-Mohammad group is not here in Afghanistan. This is an organization which could be in Pakistan. Anyway, he is not in Afghanistan and we have not been asked anything like this. We have heard about it in the news. Our reaction is that this is not true,” he said.
This report comes, after Paris-based international watchdog Financial Action Task Force (FATF) forced Islamabad to take action against some of the UN-designated terrorists, offering the possibility of getting out from the grey list now.
Notably, Pakistan’s recent action on Lashkar e Taiba (LeT) operational commander Sajid Mir, which it kept on declaring dead until now, is the result of FATF’s persistent pressure on Pakistan.
Pakistan maintains that Azhar is not present in Pakistan and likely to be in Afghanistan. Despite claims by Pakistan that he is not traceable, he continues to publish articles on Pakistani social media networks exhorting JeM cadres to indulge in Jihad and eulogizing the Taliban takeover of Kabul, claiming that Taliban victory would open avenues for Muslim victories elsewhere, reported South Asia Press. (ANI)