Abdul Rauf Azhar

Abdul Rauf Azhar Alvi (born 1974) is a Pakistani militant, the supreme commander of the jihadist Islamist militant group Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) and one of the brothers of JeM founder Masood Azhar. He took command of JeM on 21 April 2007, and is listed on the NIA Most Wanted.

He has been charged in multiple terrorist attacks in India including the 1995 kidnapping of western tourists in Kashmir, 2016 Pathankot attack, 2016 Uri attack and the 2019 Pulwama attack.

Early life He was born in Bahawalpur, Punjab, Pakistan in 1974 in a Saraiki family. His father, Allah Bakhsh Shabbir, was the headmaster at a government-run school as well as a cleric with Deobandi leanings, and his family operated a dairy and poultry farm. He studied at the Jamia Uloom-ul-Islamia and is himself is known by the title of mufti.

Command of Jaish-e-Mohammed Azhar took command of Jaish-e-Mohammed on 21 April 2007, when his older brother, Masood Azhar its leader, went underground with the support of the ISI intelligence agency of Pakistan.

He is on the NIA Most Wanted list of India's National Investigation Agency.

Rana Sanaullah, Minister of Law of Punjab, Pakistan, had said in 2016 that while JeM and Lashkar-e-Taiba were banned in Pakistan and that military actions under Operation Zarb-e-Azb to stop these militant organizations from operating against other countries had been taken, legal action against them was not possible, stating "When the state itself has been involved in a matter, how action can be taken on that basis against such banned organisations".

Rauf's brother, Masood Azhar, had made contacts in Britain who helped to provide training and logistical support for the terror plots, including "7/7, 21/7 and the attempt in 2006 to smuggle liquid bomb-making substances on to transatlantic airlines." Rashid Rauf, who was implicated in the 2006 transatlantic aircraft plot, was married to their relative.

Under Rauf and Masood's leadership, after Pakistan had joined the war on terror, the JeM split into two groups due to the brother's loyalty to the Pakistani government. Three JeM commanders, Abdul Jabbar, Maulana Umar Farooq and Abdullah Shah Mazhar, left the group and formed Jamaat ul-Furqan; led by Jabbar, the faction was joined by members of LeT, Lashkar-e-Jhangvi and Harkat-ul-Mujahideen. The remaining group that stayed with Masood Azhar used the name Khuddam ul-Islam. The Inter-Services Intelligence demanded Masood to rein in the rival faction after they began attacking Pakistani officials and civilians.

When the Musharraf government banned Khuddam ul-Islam and Jamaat-ul-Furqan, the groups carried out two assassination attempts on President Musharraf himself, on 14 and 25 December 2003. Masood Azhar's group, which stayed loyal to the Pakistani but had fallen into relative obscurity by 2004, was allowed to rebuild itself after the problematic portions of the leadership were purged. Pakistan in turn protected his group despite the official bans and the group continued to grow in Bahawalpur. The rival factions eventually realigned themselves with Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (Pakistani Taliban) in 2007.

Claims of death According to reports in the Indian media, Azhar was killed in Bahawalpur, Pakistan on 7 May 2025 in an airstrike by the Indian Air Force, as a part of Operation Sindoor. Masood Azhar, who confirmed the death of 10 family members and 4 associates in a statement, did not list his brother's name among those killed. Other reports listing key terrorists claimed to have been killed in the strikes do not include his name.