Origins
Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) is said to have created Jaish-e-Mohammed by working with several Deobandi terrorists associated with Harkat-ul-Mujahideen. By the late 1990s, states Ahmed Rashid, the Pakistani military justified jihad in Kashmir as a legitimate part of its foreign policy. Harkat had been set up in the mid-1990s with ISI support to carry out "spectacular acts of terrorism".

The United States declared it a terrorist group in 1998 and bombed its training camps in Afghanistan.

History
In December 1999, Harkat terrorists hijacked the Indian Airlines Flight 814 scheduled to fly from Kathmandu to Delhi, and diverted it to Kandahar, where they were looked after by the Afghan Taliban and the Pakistani officials stationed at the airport.

After they slit the throat of a passenger. The released prisoners were escorted to Pakistan by the ISI and Masood Azhar was chosen to head the new group Jaish-e-Mohammed. The ISI is said to have paraded him on a victory tour through Pakistan to raise money for the new organization.
Although the JeM has been officially banned in Pakistan since 2002, it continues to openly operate several facilities in the country. The group continued to grow in Bahawalpur. In 2009, it was reported to have built a large 6.5 acre walled complex in Bahawalpur, along with a swimming pool and a stable for a dozen horses, which could be used for training militants.

In April 2016, the JeM chief Masood Azhar was said to be free but "within reach, if needed". According to Riaz Hussain Pirzada, the Member of National Assembly from Bahawalpur, the "breeding grounds" still remained and the madrassas were still being financed.

In September 2016, jihadi militants attacked the Indian brigade headquarters in Uri, close to the Line of Control in the Indian state of J&K. The attack resulted in the death of 19 soldiers, described as the deadliest attack in over two decades.

Ideology and goals
The declared objective of the JeM is to liberate Kashmir and merge it with Pakistan. However, it projects Kashmir as a "gateway" to the entire India, whose Muslims are also deemed to be in need of liberation. After liberating Kashmir, it aims to carry its jihad to other parts of India,
with an intent to drive non-Muslims from the Indian subcontinent.

JeM also aims to drive the United States and Western forces from Afghanistan. The JeM leader Masood Azhar is reported to have said in a speech in Karachi: Marry for jihad, give birth for jihad and earn money only for jihad till the cruelty of America and India ends.

In late 2002, Christians were targeted across Pakistan and the gunmen belonging to JeM were caught for the acts. Some members have attacked members of the Pakistani state and western targets inside Pakistan. The American journalist Daniel Pearl was abducted and murdered by Ahmed Omar Sheikh.

JeM originally operated training camps in Afghanistan, jointly with the other militant groups.
After the fall of the Taliban government, it relocated them to Balakot and Peshawar in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and Muzaffarabad in Pakistan Occupied Kashmir. It developed a new headquarters in Bahawalpur in Pakistani Punjab, 420 miles south of Islamabad.

JeM continues to have links to its ancestor, Harkat-ul-Mujahideen.

2019
On 14 February 2019, Jaish-e-Mohammed carried out and claimed responsibility for a suicide attack in Indian state of Jammu & Kashmir on a convoy of security forces that killed at least 40 Indian personnel. A bus carrying 39 Central Reserve Police Force personnel was rammed by a car carrying 350kg of explosives.