Pakistan lists Masood Azhar in FIA Red Book with 70 lakh rupee bounty

Pakistan's Federal Investigation Agency has placed Jaish-e-Mohammed founder Masood Azhar in its 2026 Red Book of most-wanted terrorists and set a reward of 7 million Pakistani rupees, or 70 lakh, for information that leads to his arrest or conviction. The 2021 edition of the same book had listed him with a 50 lakh rupee bounty. The new book has 1,804 names, up from 1,330 five years ago.

Azhar is serial number 1480. The entry, quoted by India Today from the document, describes him as healthy, heavily built and of medium height. It names three Pakistani cases: FIR 17/20 of 3 December 2020 at the Counter Terrorism Department station in Gujranwala; FIR 8/20 of 9 March 2020 at the CTD station in Multan; and FIR 4/21 of 29 March 2021 at the CTD station in Lahore. The sections cited are from the Anti-Terrorism Act, 1997, covering banned-organisation and terror-finance offences.

The reward line in the book says the federal or provincial government will pay up to 7,000,000 rupees for information leading directly to the apprehension or conviction of Maulana Masood Azhar, son of Khuda Baksh.

The FATF calendar

The Financial Action Task Force holds its next plenary in Paris from 26 to 30 October. Pakistan sat on the FATF increased-monitoring list, the grey list, from 2018 to 2022. Indian and Pakistani news desks both framed the Red Book drop as a document timed for that meeting. ThePrint noted that the book also lists people Pakistani investigators tie to the 2008 Mumbai attacks, in which more than 160 people were killed.

Islamabad has said since 2021 that Azhar left Pakistan for Afghanistan. The Taliban authorities in Kabul have rejected that claim in earlier public exchanges. Indian officials quoted by The Tribune and India Today said technical analysis over the past six months puts him in Nawabshah, in Sindh. Those agencies were not named on the record.

Who Azhar is on the Indian file

The United Nations listed Azhar as a global terrorist in May 2019 after a long hold by China on earlier bids. India listed him under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act the same year. Jaish-e-Mohammed is the group India holds responsible for the 2001 Parliament attack and the 2019 Pulwama bombing, among other strikes. He was released to Pakistan in the 1999 Kandahar hijack exchange.

A listing in a Pakistani wanted book is not an arrest. The three FIRs are Pakistani paper. They have not produced a public custody photograph or a court date in Gujranwala, Multan or Lahore. The 20 lakh rupee increase in the bounty, five years after the first figure, is the only new number in the file.

Whether the Red Book satisfies FATF reviewers in October depends on action after the listing: asset freezes, prosecutions, and a credible account of where Azhar lives. The book itself is a list. Monday's verified addition is the 70 lakh figure, the serial number and the three FIR citations.