Jaish-e-Mohammed has taken a chilling step: the group is openly recruiting and training women as part of a new wing called Jamaat ul-Mominaat. The move, laid out in a 21-minute audio recording accessed by NDTV, reads like a formal expansion plan for terror that Pakistan pretends not to see.
Jaish chief Masood Azhar not only announced the creation of the women’s brigade but also spelled out training courses, recruitment structures, and strict rules for recruits. His words show a terror group that is organised, emboldened, and operating with impunity inside Pakistan.
In the recording, Azhar frames the brigade as a countermeasure to what he calls hostile moves against Jaish. He claims, “enemies of Jaish” have put “Hindu women into the Army” and have propped “female journalists against us,” and he says he is “mobilising women to compete and fight against them,” NDTV reported. Those lines make clear that Jaish is turning grievance and conspiracy into a recruitment pitch for women.
A blueprint for indoctrination and mobilisation
Azhar described a two-phase induction for women recruits that mirrors Jaish’s male training. He said the male recruits undergo a 15-day “Daura-e-Tarbiat” course. For women, he announced an induction called “Daura-e-Taskiya” at Markaz Usman-o-Ali in Bahawalpur. He promised recruits religious rewards to cement their commitment.
Azhar told listeners that any woman who joins Jamaat-ul-Mominaat “will go straight to paradise after death,” NDTV reported. He added that women who complete the first course would move on to the second phase, “Daura-Ayat-ul-Nisah,” where they will be taught how Islamic texts “instruct women to conduct jihad.”
This is not vague rhetoric. Azhar spelled out organisational aims. He said Jamaat-ul-Mominaat branches will be set up in every district of Pakistan, each led by a muntazima or manager responsible for recruiting women. That reveals a deliberate strategy to embed terror structures deep inside Pakistan’s society and geography.
Family leadership and sectarian mobilisation
Azhar also made clear that the women’s wing will be family led. Reports say he has appointed his sister Sadiya Azhar as head of the brigade. Other family members named in leadership roles include his sister Samaira Azhar and Afeera Farooq, the wife of Umar Farooq, the mastermind of the Pulwama attack. Azhar said the brigade includes “4-5 women whose relatives were killed in encounters with the Indian Army,” NDTV reported. He urged recruits to read his book “Ae Musalman Behna.”
The personal and familiar tone of the launch underlines how extremist networks in Pakistan often draw on kinship and local grief to replenish their ranks. Azhar even invoked family losses from India’s retaliatory Operation Sindoor, saying his elder sister Hawa Bibi was killed in the strike and that he had planned the women’s brigade with her before she died. That account turns personal vendetta into an organised recruitment tool.
Rules for women recruits reveal control and isolation
Azhar set strict behavioural rules for women who join Jamaat-ul-Mominaat. He demanded that recruits must not speak to any “unrelated men through phone or messenger, except their husbands or immediate family members,” NDTV reported. Those restrictions are part of a wider pattern of control. They are also tactical. Isolating recruits from outside contacts reduces the chance that their plans or indoctrination will be exposed.
The larger picture: terror flourishing inside Pakistan
The launch of a women’s wing is a stark reminder that terror groups are not dying out in Pakistan. Instead they are adapting and expanding. Jaish-e-Mohammed has carried out some of the deadliest attacks in India, including Uri and Pulwama. Rather than dismantling these networks, Pakistan continues to allow them to organise training, recruit openly, and set up district branches.
This growth happens despite Islamabad’s public claims of fighting terrorism on global platforms. The contradiction is glaring. While Pakistan seeks international aid, prestige, and security partnerships, it tolerates and even facilitates groups that export violence across its borders. The creation of Jamaat-ul-Mominaat exposes the limits of Islamabad’s counterterrorism claims and highlights how proximate terror infrastructure has become to everyday Pakistani life.
Dangerous precedent and the threat ahead
Azhar’s promise that women will be trained like men and taught to see violence as a path to paradise is deeply dangerous. It signals a widening pool of potential operatives and supporters. Women trained in indoctrination courses and isolated by strict social rules become harder to detect and deter. Branches in every district would give Jaish a national footprint that makes cross-border attacks easier to plan and harder to disrupt.
For India and the region, the implications are grave. A terror outfit that openly recruits women and establishes district-level cells within Pakistan is no longer a peripheral threat. It is a systemic problem enabled by a state that either lacks the will to act or prefers to look the other way.
Discover the latest Business News, Sensex, and Nifty updates. Obtain Personal Finance insights, tax queries, and expert opinions on Moneycontrol or download the Moneycontrol App to stay updated!
