In the latest audio, Azhar congratulates the previous and present Taliban leadership but raises uncertainty on whether the peace deal would continue if Donald Trump is re-elected as the US president later this year, or whether Afghanistan president Ashraf Ghani would honour it. Azhar describes the US peace deal as a victory which “America has made to escape from Afghanistan”.

Days after Pakistan declared Jaish-e-Mohammad chief Maulana Masood Azhar “missing” before the crucial plenary Financial Action Task Force (FATF) in Paris, the mastermind behind several terror attacks in India, including Pulwama and Pathankot, has released an audio on the February 29 US-Taliban peace deal.

In the seven-minute audio, latest evidence that Azhar is alive and in command over JeM, he is heard taking a swipe at the US, saying, “Afghanistan ko dekh le...40 saal main kaise halat guzar gaye. Soviet Union ka andhera, America ka andhera...Islamiya ki roshni...Europe main azaane goonji...fir Qatar ke shahr Doha main woh hua jiska tasawur kisi ko nahi tha...(Look at Afghanistan, how the last 40 years have passed. First Soviet Union, then US tried to conquer...But what happened in Doha ...is unbelievable.”

It was in Doha that the US recently signed a peace deal with Taliban, which has already shown rapid signs of unravelling. Azhar then adds that he will ensure the world never forgets the Taliban and that there will be a dawn of Islam. Azhar regularly uses the JeM’s Telegram account to release audios with messages.

In the latest audio, Azhar congratulates the previous and present Taliban leadership but raises uncertainty on whether the peace deal would continue if Donald Trump is re-elected as the US president later this year, or whether Afghanistan president Ashraf Ghani would honour it.

Azhar describes the US peace deal as a victory which “America has made to escape from Afghanistan”.

Pakistan, which was placed under the grey list in 2018 by the terror watchdog, has been struggling to get itself removed from FATF for not having done enough to combat money laundering and terror financing. The new audio released by Azhar, who is a designated terrorist by the UN, weakens Pakistan’s attempts at this. North Korea and Iran are already there in the FATF black list for two years.