UN Security Council report links JeM to Red Fort attack, flags women-only wing| India News

New Delhi: The Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) has claimed responsibility for a series of attacks and was linked to a suspected suicide car bombing near the Red Fort in New Delhi last November that occurred about a month after JeM chief Masood Azhar announced the creation of a women-only wing of the terror group, according to a new UN Security Council report.

The biannual report by the Security Council’s monitoring team for sanctions on al-Qaeda and Islamic State, made public this week, said JeM was “reported to be linked to an attack on the Red Fort in New Delhi on 9 November that killed 15 people”.

The sanctions monitoring team’s report noted that Masood Azhar, a UN-designated terrorist, had on October 8 last year “formally announced the establishment of a women-only wing, Jamaat ul-Muminat (not listed), which was aimed at supporting terrorist attacks”. It further noted that one UN member state had said JeM had “claimed responsibility for a series of attacks”.

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The report also stated that another UN member state reported that JeM “was defunct”. While the report does not identify individual member states, this appeared to be a reference to Pakistan, whose government has contended for years that groups such as JeM and Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) are “defunct” after being banned under domestic anti-terror laws.

The report also pointed out that it was reported on July 28, 2025, that “three individuals allegedly involved in the attack perpetrated in Pahalgam, in Jammu and Kashmir, were killed”.

The terror attack in Pahalgam last April, carried out by LeT proxy The Resistance Front (TRF), killed 26 civilians. India subsequently targeted terrorist infrastructure in Pakistan in May in retaliation for the attack, triggering an intense four-day conflict.

The 1267 Sanctions Committee monitors sanctions on al-Qaeda, Islamic State and their affiliates. LeT and JeM fall under the committee’s purview because of their links to al-Qaeda dating back to the 1990s.

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In the section on Afghanistan, the report noted that the “de facto authorities”—a reference to the Taliban regime—continued to “provide a permissive environment for a range of terrorist groups, notably Tehrik-e Taliban Pakistan (TTP)”.

There was an increase in attacks in Pakistan launched by TTP from Afghanistan, leading to military exchanges, and regional relations “remained fragile”. While Islamic State-Khorasan (ISIL-K) was “under sustained counter-terrorism pressure”, it retained a “potent capability, coupled with intent to conduct external operations”, the report said.

Al-Qaeda, too, enjoys the patronage of the Taliban and has “acted as a service provider and multiplier for other terrorist groups in Afghanistan in terms of training and advice”, the report noted.

Regional countries remain concerned about the number of terror groups in Afghanistan and their spillover effects, including cross-border attacks and the radicalisation of vulnerable domestic communities, the report said. “The Afghan de facto authorities claimed that there were no terrorist groups within its borders. No Member State supported this view,” it added.

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The report highlighted what it described as a “discernible increase in the effective use of new technology”, with terror groups exploiting commercial satellite communication systems for cheap, fast and relatively secure communication. The groups demonstrated “greater proficiency in the use of artificial intelligence, primarily in propaganda”, and are increasingly adept at integrating AI tools and visual effects into their efforts to radicalise and recruit.

“Although this did not represent a step change in capability, it underlined the increasing challenge that these tools pose to the international counter-terrorism effort,” the report cautioned.