Jaish’s founder Masood Azhar was released in December 1999 by India in exchange for passengers of the Indian Airlines IC-814 that was hijacked and flown to Kandahar. The very next year, Azhar founded Jaish with help from Pakistan’s intelligence agency ISI. Taliban and Osama Bin Laden also helped him. After the United States of America declared Jaish as a terror organization towards the end of 2001, Pakistan was forced to ban them. Despite pressure from the international community, Azhar continued to exercise his recruitment of terrorists in Pakistan. In 2004, Jaish built a huge complex in Pakistan Punjab’s Bahawalpur. Jaish then split into two groups, and the one that opposed Azhar declared its support to Pakistan’s Taliban, Tehrik-i-Taliban. After the split Azhar didn’t make any formal appearance for a few years. He resurfaced in 2014, to hold a public rally in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir to launch his book. A year later, in 2015, Prime Minister Narendra Modi made a short visit to Pakistan for then PM Nawaz Sharif’s granddaughter’s wedding. In the same year, Jaish attacked the Pathankot airbase, killing seven soldiers. Pakistan Punjab’s law minister announced that Azhar had been taken into custody but it was a farce. Jaish released its own statement denying any such arrests.

Azhar fielded his family members into attacks on Indian soil. In 2017, Azhar’s nephew Talha Rashid was killed in an encounter in Kashmir. Another one of his nephews, Mohammad Usman, was killed later. Azhar’s brother, Abdul Rouf Asgar has been on the radar of intelligence agencies for a long time.

The attack in Pulwama came the very next day after Azhar’s brother said, in Pakistan, that Afzal Guru’s hanging, felon in the Parliament attack case, would be avenged soon. China's support
Both Lashkar and Jaish are two hands of Pakistan’s ISI. Jaish gets the biggest help from China through the ISI. Moves made by India and the international community to blacklist Azhar was blocked by China. Recently, Azhar threatened the Modi government with terrible consequences if the Centre constructs the Ram Temple.