JeM chief Masood Azhar. (File) JeM chief Masood Azhar. (File)

Intelligence agencies are trying to ascertain reports about Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) chief Masood Azhar’s health that have emerged on social media, officials told PTI on Sunday. The officials added that they had no information other than that Azhar was undergoing treatment at an army hospital in Rawalpindi after suffering renal failure.

Certain reports indicated that Azhar was injured after India struck a key JeM camp in Balakot last week, even after a senior security official in New Delhi had earlier claimed that the JeM founder was suffering from renal failure and was under regular dialysis.

“Recent reports indicate that Masood Azhar is now afflicted with renal failure and is under treatment and regular dialysis at the army hospital in Rawalpindi, the headquarters of the Pakistan Army,” the senior security official was quoted as saying by PTI.

Pakistan Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi had also earlier admitted that the Jaish chief was “unwell”. “He is in Pakistan, according to my information. He is unwell to the extent that he can’t leave his house, because he’s really unwell,” the official had told the news agency.

Days after 40 CRPF jawans were killed in a terror attack in Pulwama, India had struck a key terror camp in Balakot following credible intelligence inputs that JeM was attempting another suicide terror attack. At a press briefing, Foreign Secretary Vijay Gokhale had confirmed a “non-military preemptive action” specifically targeting a JeM camp was conducted by the Indian Air Force.

A resident of Bahawalpur in Pakistan’s Punjab province, Azhar had formed the JeM in 2000. The 50-year-old, who was released by the NDA government in 1999 in exchange of hostages of the hijacked Indian Airlines plane IC-814, has been accused of being the mastermind of the 2001 Parliament attack, suicide attack on Jammu and Kashmir state assembly, attack on Pathankot IAF base and the latest Pulwama terror strike.

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