BJP says IC 814 hijacking mastermind killed

Thursday, 08 May, 2025
Rauf Azhar was designated as a terrorist by the United States Treasury on December 2, 2010. (Photo courtesy: X@BJP4India)

New Delhi: The BJP has claimed that Abdul Rauf Azhar, the younger brother of Jaish-e-Mohammad chief Masood Azhar, was among the terrorists killed as India struck terror infrastructure in Pakistan and Pakistan-Occupied Kashmir under Operation Sindoor.

The BJP put out a social media post with Abdul Rauf Azhar's photo and "eliminated" written on it. Abdul Rauf Azhar, a most-wanted terrorist, was the mastermind of the hijack of Indian Airlines IC 814 in Kandahar in 1999. He was involved in the Pathankot terror attack and the 2001 attack on Parliament.

In the IC 814 hijack, an India Airlines plane flying from Kathmandu to Delhi with 190 people on board, was diverted to Kandahar and the Indian government was forced to release three terrorists in exchange for the release of the passengers -- one of them was Masood Azhar.