M4 rifles used in Pahalgam attack may have been procured by JeM de-facto chief Mufti Abdul Rauf Asghar

A rifle recovered during a search operation to trace terrorists, in Kathua district, J&K

The M4 rifles of American origin, left behind by NATO forces in Afghanistan and later used by four terrorists in the April 22 Pahalgam terror attack, were likely procured by Mufti Abdul Rauf Asghar, the de-facto chief of proscribed Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM). 

He is suspected to have arranged the weapons through smugglers associated with the Markaz Subhan Allah camp in Pakistan, which was targeted in Wednesday’s military action by the Indian armed forces, according to the dossiers on terror camps across the border accessed by businessline. 

Asgar is now effectively running the JeM camp after the Pakistan-based terrorist outfit’s chief, Maulana Masood Azhar, was placed under military protective custody at an undisclosed location in Islamabad or Rawalpindi, security forces believe. Maulana Masood Azhar was designated as a global terrorist in 2019 after his involvement in the 1999 Indian Airlines IC 814 hijacking and other terrorist activities.

Asgar reportedly operates out of JeM’s headquarters at the Markaz Subhan Alllah camp.

Also known as ‘Mara’, an abbreviation of his name, Asgar had arranged M4 rifles and other weapon consignments through smugglers based in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, a situated in north-western region of Pakistan, and have linkages with the JeM’s HQ. 

JeM’s Afghanistan operations are also managed from this headquarters, which has residences of Masood Azhar, his family and relatives. Ten of them are suspected to have succumbed to an aerial assault mounted by the Indian Air Force. 

According to the dossier, Qari Maaz — the son of Qari Zarrar, who left the now-defunct Harkat-ul-Mujahideen to form JeM along with Azhar — was previously looking after the Afghanistan chapter of the terrorist organisation.  Until 2017, he was in Afghanistan.  

Maaz, however, stays and operates out of another terrorist camp, Markaz Abbas, at Mohalla Roli Dhara Bypass Road in Kotli, Pakistan-Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (PoJK). 

Following the Pathankot attack, JeM’s arms and ammunition stores — which were earlier stored in Dasaka Markaz camp in Sialkot — have been shifted to Markaz Abbas camp in Kotli, PoJK.

The Markaz Abbas camp one of the 9 terrorist camps that India attacked early on Wednesday morning in retaliation for the Pahalgam terrorist strike.

Security forces suspect that Ali Bhai, alias Talha, and Asif Fauji — both Pakistanis among the four terrorists who allegedly carried out the massacre of 26 tourists, including a Nepali citizen, and injured 17 others in Pahalgam — could be the link for procuring the American gun for the April 22 attack.

The other two identified attackers are Adil Hussain Thoker and Ahsan, residents of Anantnag and Pulwama, respectively, in Jammu and Kashmir. 

The Resistance Force, a front of banned terror outfit Lashkar-e-Taiba, had claimed responsibility of the attack and later withdrew it to deny tracing of bloodbath at Pahalgam to Pakistan.

M4 is a deadly carbine capable of firing body armour piercing steel bullets.

In April following an encounter in Kishtwar district of Kashmir, the security forces had recovered one M4 rifle besides two AK 47s and bullets for both guns. 

But, the first reported use of the M4 rifle that forces came to know about was in a 2017 encounter when Masood Azhar’s nephew Talah Rashid Masood was gunned down.

These weapons were left behind by American forces after they exited from Afghanistan in 2021 and are now available in the arms grey market of Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Terror drone launchpad

The JeM is using its terror facility, Sarjal Tehra Kalan, in Shakargarh tehsil of Narowal district in Punjab of Pakistan, as the launching pad to ferry arms, ammunitions, narcotics and war like stores through drones into the Indian territory for proxy war, the dossier on the camp that too was attacked by India flagged.

JeM has also been planning use of drones for infiltrating its terrorists into India aerially from Sarjal camp given its close proximity of around 6 km from the International Border in Samba sector of Jammu, in this part of the fence, it pointed out.

The cadres at this facility have also specialised in digging cross-border tunnels through the help of Pakistan’s ISI for infiltration into India. 

A network of underground tunnels have been developed across the IB in Arnia-Jammu sector for undetected easier movement of armed men of the outfit. 

Published on May 8, 2025