India Takes Masood Azhar Case To Financial Watchdog’s Paris Plenary

India is pressing the global financial crime watchdog to examine Pakistan’s record on acting against the head of Jaish-e-Mohammed, as the Financial Action Task Force opens a three-day plenary in Paris running until Friday

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At issue is the whereabouts of Masood Azhar, whom the United Nations designated a global terrorist in 2019. Pakistan has said he has been in Afghanistan since that year. The Taliban administration rejected that account in September, saying he was not in the country and that Islamabad had never formally raised the matter with Kabul.

New Delhi has argued that the contradiction undermines Pakistan’s position, and that Islamabad should act against figures on its own territory rather than make announcements. It pointed to a bounty of seven million Pakistani rupees placed on Azhar last month, which India dismissed as a gesture rather than enforcement. Indian officials have spent the past week urging diplomats from partner countries and member states to have the question raised at the meeting.

Azhar is wanted in India in connection with the 2001 attack on parliament, the 2016 assault on the Pathankot air base and the 2019 Pulwama terror bombing. India released him in December 1999 as part of an exchange for passengers aboard a hijacked Indian Airlines flight. The UN listed him in May 2019 after China withdrew a long-standing objection. Relatives of his were among those killed when India struck a Jaish base at Bahawalpur in May 2025, following the Pahalgam terror attack.

Pakistan is not currently on the task force’s grey list. It was placed under increased monitoring in 2018 over weaknesses in enforcing sanctions and prosecuting terror financing, including networks tied to Jaish-e-Mohammed and Lashkar-e-Taiba, and was removed in October 2022. Scrutiny has continued through the body’s regional affiliate for Asia and the Pacific. Only North Korea, Iran and Myanmar are on the blacklist.

The plenary draws delegates from a network of more than 200 jurisdictions and observer bodies, and will review progress by countries still under increased monitoring. It is the first under a new presidency.