Origin: Was floated in February 2000 as an incarnation of the Harkat-ul-Ansar (HUA), which was banned by the US in 1996 following the kidnapping of five western tourists in Kashmir. It was founded by former HUA leader Maulana Masood Azhar, who was released from an Indian jail in lieu of the passengers of the hijacked Indian Airlines plane in December 1999.

Headquarters: Bahawalpur, the hometown of Azhar. Also has offices in seven cities across Pakistan.

Objective: The liberation of Jammu and Kashmir from India through an armed jehad.

Area of operations: Jammu and Kashmir.

Sponsors: Gets funds from a wide range of sources in countries like Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Yemen, Britain and Bangladesh.

Training camps: Khost in Afghanistan and POK.

Battle order: Chief: Maulana Massod Azhar, supreme commander: Maulala Shamzai, launching commander: Mushtaq Ahmed Zargar, chief of operations in the Valley: Gazi Baba

It was sometime at the end of 1993 that Maulana Masood Azhar sneaked into India on a fake passport for his "Mission Kashmir". An Afghan-trained activist of the Harkat-ul Ansar, Azhar was assigned by his outfit and the ISI the task of accelerating militancy in Kashmir by forging an alliance between local militants and foreign mercenaries. However, the mission fell through with Azhar’s arrest in early 1994. His interrogators had classified him as a "fanatic, dangerous militant fit for a long-term confinement". But five years later, Azhar walked free at the Taliban’s former spiritual capital of Kandahar after his release was successfully negotiated following the hijack of an Indian Airlines plane by his brother and a band of followers.
Barely two months later, Azhar surfaced in Pakistan, with fire-spitting harangues against India and floated the Jaish-e-Mohammad
motivator, organiser and fund-raiser, the ISI could not have found a more fiery and iconic character to build its proxy operations in Kashmir and infuse a new lease of life into militancy.
For some time now, Azhar has been the key figure in the ISI-sponsored jehad in the Valley. His belief in the Deobandi sect which commands a wide influence in Pakistan has made it easier for them to scout for funds and fighters.

When the JEM was launched, it was given a financial packet of Rs 2 crore by the ISI with cadres from the Harkat-ul-Mujahideen, Al Badr, Harkat-ul-Jehad-e-Islami and Tehreek-ul-Mujahideen, all Pakistan-supported mercenary organisations operating in Kashmir. "The JEM was born out of the ISI’s mix-and-match tactics to lend a sharp edge to militancy in Kashmir," says a top intelligence official in Srinagar.

It was Azhar's wide network of connections with an array of militant top guns in Kashmir that has helped prop the Jaish to its present status. The first commander of the JEM appointed by Azhar in Kashmir was Ghazi Baba, a Kashmir militant of Harkat-ul-Mujahideen. Another top Kashmiri militant Mushtaq Ahmed Zargar alias Latrum, who too was released following rhe hijack has also been drafted by Azhar.

Currently, the JEM controls 500 guns, most of them nationals of Pakistan or POK, in Kashmir. It remains a shadowy outfit, with identities of only two dozen of its cadres known to the security forces. JEM’s hit squads are mostly foreign mercenaries, while it buys logistic support through its network of "part-time" militants.

In terms of striking terror, the JEM is a close second to the LET. It has been known to have linkages with Osama bin Laden and using the Khost training camps in Afghanistan for churning out jehadis for Kashmir. The chief coordinator of the JEM operations in the Valley operates under the wireless call sign of Taliban.

It was on April 19, 2000 that the JEM emerged in a big way in Kashmir when one of its suicide bombers blew himself up along with an explosive- laden car in front of
i Bagh cantonment, the headquarters of the 15 Corps in Srinagar. Subsequently, the group claimed responsibility for a number of hand-grenade attacks. But its most audacious action was the October 1 suicide attack on the Jammu and Kashmir Assembly in Srinagar that left 28 persons, mostly civilians, dead. the JEM first owned up the attack and then quickly backed off, ostensibly under pressure from the ISI.

However, the incident lent weight to India’s outcry against Pakistan-sponsored terrorism in Kashmir. Consequently, the US froze the assets of the JEM. To beat the move, the JEM is reported to have changed its name. It is known to control modules of suicide bombers, who are jehad-fired zealots recruited from religious seminaries in Pakistan. Only a few months ago, Azhar had boasted about having raised a force of 6,000 volunteers for jehad in Kashmir. His is the only organisation that believes in the ideology of Mukalidism i.e. following the path of the four Imams. The purpose is to enlarge the recruitment base for the JEM. It runs its independent covert communication network in the Valley controlled by a master station code named Tuba, located at a height of 15,000 ft in the mountains of POK.

Unlike the LET, the JEM gets limited support from a section of the ISI. The reason why the Pakistani military regimes chafes at the JEM is its involvement in sectarian violence in the country. Yet, the JEM continues to be one of the prime terror-exporting outfits operating from the Pakistani soil.