Maulana Masood Azhar, the leader of Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM), admitted Wednesday that India’s missile assault on the group’s Bahawalpur headquarters killed 10 members of his family and four close colleagues after Operation Sindoor, according to news agency PTI.

The JeM chief’s older sister and her husband, a nephew and his wife, another niece, and five children from his extended family were among those slain in the assault on Jamia Masjid Subhan Allah in Bahawalpur, according to a statement credited to Azhar, according to PTI.

According to the statement, Azhar’s mother, two other close friends, and one of his close acquaintances were also killed in the incident.

“This act of violence has beyond all limits. According to PTI, it also said, “There should be no expectation of mercy now.”

After Azhar was freed in 1999 in return for the hijacked passengers of IC-814, Bahawalpur became the center of the JeM.

After China loosened its grip on a plan to blacklist the JeM commander, the UN named Azhar a “global terrorist” in May 2019, ten years after New Delhi initially brought the matter before the international organization.

It is said that the elusive Azhar is hiding in a “safe place” in Bahawalpur after going missing from the public eye in April 2019.

The organization has been implicated in a number of terror acts in India, including as the 2001 assault on Parliament, the 2000 attack on the assembly in Jammu and Kashmir, the 2016 attack on the IAF base in Pathankot, and the 2019 Pulwama suicide bombing.

All of the people wounded in the Bahawalpur incident have been taken to Victoria Hospital and are receiving the finest care possible, according to Punjab Information Minister Azma Bokhari.

According to the Pakistani military, the strike claimed 26 lives and wounded 46 others.

Indian military troops launched missile attacks on nine terror targets in Pakistan and Pakistan-Occupied Kashmir early on Wednesday in retaliation for the Pahalgam terror assault. These targets included the Lashkar-e-Taiba camp in Muridke and the Jaish-e-Mohammad stronghold in Bahawalpur.

Two weeks after the Pahalgam incident, which claimed the lives of 26 people, the military attacks were carried out as part of Operation Sindoor.

“A little while ago, the Indian Armed forces launched ‘Operation Sindoor’ hitting terrorist infrastructure in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Jammu and Kashmir from where terrorist attacks against India have been planned and directed,” the defense ministry stated in a statement at 1.44 a.m.

Shehbaz Sharif, the prime minister of Pakistan, called the Indian missile attacks a “act of war” and said that his nation had every right to respond “befittingly.”

“No military installations in Pakistan have been targeted,” the Indian statement added. India has shown a great deal of prudence in choosing its goals and its execution strategy.

It said that no Pakistani military installations have been targeted and that the Indian military’s activities have been “focused, measured, and non-escalatory in nature.”