The Indian government announced on Thursday that its military forces have killed Abdul Rauf Azhar, a prominent Islamist terrorist with reported indirect involvement in the 2002 murder of Wall Street Journal’s South Asia bureau chief, Daniel Pearl. Azhar, affiliated with the terror group Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM), was reportedly killed during an operation dubbed “Operation Sindoor.”
India’s governing Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) publicly stated that the Indian army had neutralized Azhar. He was described as a key figure within both al-Qaeda and Jaish-e-Mohammed, an organization primarily focused on the integration of Kashmir into Pakistan through violent means.
While not directly involved in the physical abduction and beheading of Daniel Pearl by al-Qaeda-affiliated Pakistani terrorists in 2002, Abdul Rauf Azhar’s militant network is reported to have played a role leading up to the tragedy.
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Following initial reports of Azhar’s death, Daniel Pearl’s father, Judea Pearl, issued a clarification via a statement on X (formerly Twitter) regarding the nature of Azhar’s connection to his son’s case.
“I want to clarify: Azhar was a Pakistani extremist and leader of the terrorist organization Jaish-e-Mohammed,” Judea Pearl wrote. “While his group was not directly involved in the plot to abduct Danny, it was indirectly responsible. Azhar orchestrated the hijacking that led to the release of Omar Sheikh—the man who lured Danny into captivity.”
Daniel Pearl, a Jewish-American journalist, was kidnapped in Karachi, Pakistan, while investigating a story related to Richard Reid, the “shoe bomber.” His brutal murder, captured on video, sent shockwaves globally and remains a stark reminder of the perils faced by journalists operating in dangerous environments.
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Abdul Rauf Azhar had been a designated terrorist by the United States since 2010 and was wanted in India for his involvement in several terror attacks, including the 1999 hijacking of Indian Airlines Flight IC 814, which resulted in the release of his brother, Masood Azhar, the founder of JeM, and other terrorists, including Omar Saeed Sheikh.
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