Breeding ground for fidayeens, depot for smuggled NATO arms

The banned Jaish-e-Mohammed's terror group's two 'Markaz' (centres) — its Bahawalpur headquarters and Narowal in Pakistan's Punjab — functioned as a breeding ground for suicide attackers, had links with Palestine's Hamas and served as a facility for hoarding smuggled NATO arms from Afghanistan, officials said here Thursday.

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Both these centres located on the opposite ends of Pakistan's Punjab province were among the nine targets hit by missiles launched by the Indian Air Force (IAF) in the early hours of Wednesday, in a strong retaliation to the Pahalgam terror attack April 22, in which 25 tourists and a local guide were gunned down by terrorists.

According to the officials, the Bahawalpur centre of JeM, spread over 15 acres, is run by de-facto chief Abdul Rauf Asgar and the area has residential houses of JeM founder Masood Azhar and other family members.