Over 1,000 suicide bombers are ready

New Delhi: Masood Azhar, the head of Jaish-e-Mohammed, is back in the news with another audio message. This time, he claims the group has thousands of fighters, all supposedly on standby and ready for action.

In this recording, Azhar goes on about “martyrdom.” He says his militants don’t care about money or comfort or status. No one’s asking for fancy cars or visas, he insists, they just want to die for their cause.

According to him, these fighters pray in the middle of the night, asking for nothing but a chance to be sent to the front lines.

Some even write to him, demanding to be deployed as soon as possible—almost threatening him if he doesn’t send them quickly enough. He says they are highly motivated to carry out attacks and attain Shadat.

Azhar doesn’t give any numbers, but he hints that if the world knew how many militants Jaish-e-Mohammed really had, it would cause a media frenzy. He says their numbers aren’t one or two or even a thousand just that it’s a lot, and that global media would explode if he revealed the truth.

It’s not clear exactly when this message was recorded, but security sources are linking it to Jaish-e-Mohammed.

And honestly, these kinds of statements usually come out when groups like this are feeling the heat.

India’s recent operations killed dozens of militants, and soon after, this message surfaced.

It fits a pattern. As for Masood Azhar himself, he hasn’t shown his face in public since 2019.

After an airstrike hit his hideout in Bahawalpur, he’s kept a low profile. Since then, every so often, an audio message or a letter with his name pops up.