Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) commander Akram Khan Ghazi was killed by unidentified bike-borne assailants in Pakistan's Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, sources said on Friday (November 10). His killing marked the second assassination of a terrorist who targeted India, in the last one week. The Pakistani agencies are investigating the hand of local rival groups and in-fighting within LeT in the killing. Akram Ghazi was known for his anti-India speeches in Pakistan. Ghazi, a key figure of Lashkar-e-Taiba, was involved in terrorist activities for a long time. He previously headed the LeT recruitment cell from 2018 to 2020, an important division responsible for identifying and recruiting individuals sympathetic to the extremist cause.
The Pakistani spy agency ISI is reportedly trying to downplay the assassination of Ghazi who is known for his hate speeches against India.
Ghazi’s killing is the third assassination of a top Lashkar terrorist lately and the sixth overall of a top commander of a terror organisation operating from the other side of the border this year. On Sunday, mastermind of 2018 terror attack Khwaja Shahid was found beheaded near the Line of Control in Pakistan.
Other terrorists killed this year
Riyaz Ahmad alias Abu Qasim, who was one of the masterminds of the Dhangri terror attack, was shot dead in September by unidentified gunmen inside a mosque in the Pakistan-Occupied Kashmir. He originally hailed from the Jammu region and exfiltrated across the border in 1999. Ahmad was considered key behind the revival of terrorism in the border districts of Poonch and Rajouri in Jammu and Kashmir. He had shifted recently to Rawalkot.
In March this year, a top commander of Hizbul Mujahideen was shot dead by unidentified assailants in Rawalpindi. Bashir Ahmad Peer alias Imtiyaz Alam had been living in Pakistan for over 15 years and was accused of getting chief commander of the Ansar Gazwat-ul-Hind killed in May 2019, according to the report.
In February, former Al-Badr Mujahideen commander Syed Khalid Raza was shot dead by unidentified gunmen in Karachi which the police described as a targeted attack.
