Stay out of sight for now: Pakistan Army's advice to Masood Azhar, Hafiz Saeed over rising international pressure

Pakistan's military-intelligence establishment has stepped in to protect its terrorist assets from themselves yet again. The Pakistan Army has asked Jaish-e-Mohammad chief Masood Azhar and Lashkar-e-Taiba chief Hafiz Saeed to keep a low profile as long as pressure of the international community continues over the Pulwama terror attack.

Intelligence sources have told Zee Media that the Pakistan Army has asked its two terrorist principals to make fewer public appearances till the international community finds something else to focus on.

This protective advice to the terrorists comes a day after Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan in a televised address insisted that Pakistan had no connection to the Pulwama attack. That denial had come almost simultaneously with the release of a video clip in which the Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Mohammad claimed responsibility for the Pulwama attack for the second time.

The Pakistan Army is predictably averse to triumphalist displays by its in-house terrorists after their attack, considering France on Tuesday declared its intention to again make a push to have Masood Azhar recognised as a globally designated terrorist at the United Nations.

India's efforts to have the global community formally term Azhar a 'globally designated terrorist' have repeatedly been blocked by China, which has used the Pakistani fig leaf on 'conclusive evidence' to deny the obvious. Other countries have also repeatedly stated that China is alone in trying to block the move to the give official sanction to Azhar's self-declaration.

Jaish-e-Mohammad has claimed responsibility for the Pulwama terror attack of February 14, in which 40 personnel of the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) were killed. A radicalised Kashmiri youth had driven a car laden with RDX into a security convoy of about 2,000 personnel. Indian agencies have said the explosives are likely to have been carried into India in backpacks and could have come from sources connected to the Pakistan Army.