Day after Imran Khan's 'Pulwama-like' warning, report says Jaish terrorists may target Mumbai

A day after Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan warned that India's move to revoke Article 370 of the Constitution could create more Pulwama like incidents across the Valley, a media report suggests that Jaish-e-Mohammed, the Pakistan-based terrorist group, may escalate its attacks on security forces in the region and is likely to target Mumbai. The information was provided by intelligence agencies to the government, reported Hindustan Times.

The report added that the new piece of information indicates that Pakistan may be attempting to ramp up its support to terror groups. A senior security official told Hindustan Times that when Imran Khan made the statement, Rauf Azghar, the younger brother of Jaish chief Maulana Masood Azahar, had reached Pakistan-occupied Kashmir after meetings in Rawalpindi on Tuesday.

Hindustan Times added that a large number of JeM recruits are shifting from its camps in Punjab towards the border.

The newspaper quoted a top government as saying that the Mumbai could be one of the targets on the radar of the Jaish-e-Mohammed. The official added that a three-member Jaish team had been assigned the task of carrying out an attack in Mumbai and local sleeper cells had been activated.

The Indian government on Monday revoked Article 370 which gave special status to Jammu and Kashmir and proposed that the state be bifurcated into two union territories, Jammu and Kashmir, and Ladakh, in a bid to tackle head-on the vexatious 72-year-old problem wracking the soul of the nation.

"We will take the case of Kashmir to the United Nations and apprise the International community of the treatment of minorities in India under the racist ideology of the BJP," Khan stated hours after Pakistan Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi wrote to UN Secretary-general on the prevailing situation in the region.

In a veiled attack on the Modi-led Indian government over its racism, Prime Minister Khan said, "The current BJP Government in India are involved in mob lynching on the mere supposition of having eaten beef is part and parcel of their racist ideology. This ideology has continued in Indian Occupied Kashmir yesterday".

He said, "The Indian State wishes to change the demography of Kashmir. It is anathema to the Geneva Convention, and to the Indian Constitution itself", adding that it will further fuel the fire in Kashmir.

On Wednesday, Pakistan expelled Indian High Commissioner Ajay Bisaria, minutes after it decided to downgrade the diplomatic ties with India over what it called New Delhi's "unilateral and illegal" move to revoke the special status of Jammu and Kashmir.

This was announced after Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan chaired a crucial meeting of the National Security Committee (NSC), attended by top civil and military leadership, during which it was also decided to suspend the bilateral trade and review the "bilateral arrangements".