Maulana Masood Azhar was born in 1968 in Bahawalpur, in the central Pakistani province of Punjab. He received his Islamic education at Jamia Uloom-i-Islami, near Karachi, which has a reputation as one of Pakistan's leading religious universities. After completing his education, he became a teacher at the institute for several years. He went on to write several Islamic books and became editor of a religious magazine.

Azhar preaches Pan-Islamism and believes the entire world should be "one flag, one Government, one country" under Islam. His scholarship though is limited but his terrorism is not. Azhar is known to be a fiery orator who has been supported by various dreaded terrorist outfits like Harkat-ul-ansar and leaders including Osama Bin Laden. The spectacled andheavily built Azhar, is one of the top leaders of the pro-Pakistan terrorist outfit Harkat-ul-mujahideen. Harkat-ul-Mujahideen changed its name from Harkat-ul-Ansar two years ago after the United States included it on a list of 30 groups it identified as "foreign terroristorganizations", making it illegal to provide funds for them and denying their members or representatives U.S. visas.

Azhar's family, in Pakistan, has said he was a journalist at the time writing for an Islamic magazine, Al-Faran. However, he was arrested on February 11th, 1994 while in India on a valid visa and had nothing to do with Al-Faran. Azhar's father, Allah Bakhsh Sabir, said four years ago that his son was jailed in India in 1994 for his alleged involvement with Kashmiri militants after he travelled to India on a visa obtained in Portugal.

"Indian authorities cannot keep me long in jail, my comrades will get me out," once boasted Maulana Masood Azhar, according to an article in the Hindustan Times, an Indian newspaper. Azhar had said he had come to India via Bangladesh on a fake passport to set up advanced arms training camps in remote areas of Doda district of Jammu and Kashmir. In the interview, Azhar had announced in 1994 the infusion by Pakistan of foreign mercenaries in Jammu and Kashmir. "Soldiers of Islam have come from 12 countries.... Our organization has nothing to do with politics. We fight for religion. We do not believe in the concept of nations. We want Islam to rule the world."

In 1995 a group, who kidnapped six Western tourists demanded the release of Azhar. When the Indian government refused, one of the hostages, a Norwegian was beheaded, one escaped and the remainder are missing but feared dead.

In 1999, an Indian airliner was hijacked by 5 Pakistani nationals and demanded the release of several terrorists including Azhar. After eight long days of negotiations, Azahar was finally released. He and the hijackers under the protection of the Taliban, fled from Afghanistan to Pakistan.

Once in Pakistan, Azhar founded the Jaish-e-Mohammed, a group similar to his previous Harkat-ul-mujahideen. Jaish-e-Mohammed has been responsible for dozens of attacks on civilians and security forces in Kashmir as well as the infamous suicide bombing on the Kashmir State Legislature on October 1st, 2001 where 11 security personnel and 24 civilians were killed. Jaish-e-Mohammed is reported to have recieved $2 million dollars from Osama bin Laden.

U.S. intelligence has also accused Azhar of transferring $100,000 to the September 11th hijackers. Azhar also asisted Tariq al-Fadhli, a Yemeni national responsible for the USS Cole bombing.

After international pressure in December of 2001, President Musharraf of Pakistan placed Azhar under arrest in an apparent crackdown on terrorism. However, he was quickly put under house arrest instead where he has access to a telephone and is allowed visitors. In essence, no action has been taken against him.