LAHORE: Pakistan Army Chief General Asim Munir reportedly ordered the Corps Commander of Bahawalpur and army personnel to attend the funeral of those killed in the Indian missile strikes on Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) headquarters on May 7, according to a top commander of the group.
In a video that went viral on Thursday, JeM commander Ilyas Kashmiri claimed that after 25 years of struggle, the Pakistan Army and jihadis have effectively become one. “After 25 years, we have aligned the state—Pakistan Army, Air Force, and Navy—with the jihadi ideology. Those killed on May 7 were JeM members, and the Pakistan Army and Air Force took their revenge,” he said.
Kashmiri also revealed that following the attack on JeM headquarters in Bahawalpur, around 400 km from Lahore, General Munir issued direct orders from GHQ Rawalpindi to ensure that the Corps Commander and soldiers attended the funerals and paid tribute to the deceased.
The Indian strikes, part of Operation Sindoor, killed 10 family members of JeM chief Masood Azhar along with four of his close associates. Pakistan Army generals, senior police officers, and top bureaucrats reportedly attended the funerals.
In an earlier video shared on YouTube, Kashmiri described how Azhar’s family was “torn into pieces” in the missile strikes. Speaking at the Mission Mustafa Conference in Punjab on September 6, Kashmiri said, “To protect the ideological and geographical boundaries of this country, we have struck in Delhi, Kabul, and Kandhar. On May 7, Maulana Masood Azhar’s family in Bahawalpur was torn apart in Indian strikes.”
Tensions between India and Pakistan escalated after terrorists killed 26 people, mostly civilians, in Pahalgam, Jammu and Kashmir, on April 22. In response, Indian forces carried out missile strikes on terror targets, including JeM’s Bahawalpur stronghold.
A statement from Azhar at the time confirmed that the strikes on Jamia Masjid Subhan Allah in Bahawalpur killed 10 of his family members, including his elder sister and her husband, a nephew and his wife, another niece, and five children, along with four close associates.
Bahawalpur has been a key hub for JeM since Azhar’s release in exchange for hijacked IC-814 passengers in 1999.
