Pakistan to use ₹14 crore to fund Jaish chief Masood Azhar: Rajnath Singh issues stern warning

Defence minister Rajnath Singh on Friday cautioned that Pakistan intends to use ₹14 crore from its taxpayers’ money to support Masood Azhar, the UN-designated terrorist head of Jaish-e-Mohammed. While speaking to air warriors at the Bhuj Air Force Station in Gujarat, Rajnath Singh expressed significant worries regarding Pakistan’s renewed attempts to restore its terror infrastructure and called on the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to rethink its one-billion-dollar aid to Islamabad.

“Pakistan will spend the tax collected from its citizens to give around ₹14 crore to Masood Azhar, the head of Jaish-e-Mohammed terrorist organisation, even though he is a UN-designated terrorist. The Pakistan government has also announced financial assistance to rebuild the terror infrastructure of Lashkar-e-Taiba and Jaish-e-Mohammed located in Muridke and Bahawalpur,” said Rajnath Singh.

He said that a large portion of the IMF’s $1 billion aid to Pakistan would fund terror infrastructure, calling it indirect terror financing and urging that India’s contributions not be used for such purposes.

“Certainly, a large part of IMF’s one billion dollars assistance will be used to fund the terror infrastructure. Will this not be considered indirect funding by IMF, an international organisation? Any financial assistance to Pakistan is no less than terror funding. The funds India gives to IMF should not be used, directly or indirectly, to create terror infrastructure in Pakistan or any other country,” defence minister added.