India Calls Pakistan's Masood Azhar Reward Hike a 'Phoney Announcement'
India dismissed Pakistan's increased reward on JeM chief Masood Azhar as a gimmick, urging concrete action instead of hollow announcements.
India on Tuesday rejected Pakistan's decision to increase the reward for information on Jaish-e-Mohammed chief Masood Azhar, describing it as a hollow gesture from a state that sponsors terrorism.
At the Ministry of External Affairs' regular briefing, spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said such moves were familiar. "Such gimmicks and hoodwinking by Pakistan is not new. We have seen such gimmicks in the past as well," he said, responding to a question.
Jaiswal said the announcement carried no weight coming from a country that backs terror. "For a state sponsor of terror to make an announcement, a phoney announcement -- we all know how hollow it is," he said, adding that Islamabad must act rather than issue statements. "They must take action and not make phoney announcements, which is of no consequence."
Pakistan's Federal Investigation Agency has listed Azhar as a fugitive in its 2026 Red Book of most wanted high-profile terrorists and raised the bounty on him by PKR 20 lakh to PKR 70 lakh, roughly Rs 24 lakh. The agency had first placed a reward on him in 2021.
The listing comes weeks before the Financial Action Task Force's plenary in October. Pakistan was removed from the FATF grey list in October 2022 and has faced pressure to show action against UN-designated terrorists to avoid being returned to it.
Azhar was designated a global terrorist by the United Nations Security Council in May 2019 after China lifted a years-long technical hold. The United States has a $10 million reward on him.
His whereabouts remain formally disputed. Islamabad has maintained since 2021 that he is not in Pakistan and has claimed he crossed into Afghanistan, an account India has rejected.
JeM's Markaz Subhanallah facility at Bahawalpur, about 100 km inside Pakistan, was among the sites the Indian armed forces said they destroyed during Operation Sindoor in May 2025, launched after the Pahalgam terror attack. Azhar later said members of his family and some close associates were killed in the strike.
Azhar was released from Indian custody in December 1999 in exchange for the passengers and crew of Indian Airlines flight IC-814, which was hijacked from Kathmandu and flown to Kandahar in Taliban-controlled Afghanistan. He founded Jaish-e-Mohammed the following year. The outfit has been blamed for the 2001 Parliament attack, the 2016 Pathankot air base attack and the 2019 Pulwama bombing.