Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) commander Akram Khan Ghazi was gunned down by unidentified bike-borne men in Pakistan's Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, according to media reports. Pakistan agencies are looking into the role of local rivals as well as in-fighting within LeT to probe Ghazi's killing, reported Times of India.
Ghazi was reportedly a key member of LeT's central recruitment cell and was responsible for radicalising terrorists who then infiltrated into the Kashmir Valley. The TOI report suggests that the Pakistani spy agency ISI has been trying to downplay the killing of Ghazi, known for his hate-filled rants against India.
Ghazi's killing is the third assassination of a top Lashkar operative in recent days and the sixth killing of a top commander of a terror outfit operating from across the border this year. On Sunday, 2018 terror attack mastermind Khwaja Shahid was found beheaded near the Line of Control in Pakistan.
Riyaz Ahmad alias Abu Qasim, one of the main conspirators behind the Dhangri terror attack, was shot dead in September by unidentified gunmen inside a mosque in Pakistan-Occupied Kashmir.
Originally hailing from the Jammu region, Ahmad exfiltrated across the border in 1999. He was considered the brains behind the revival of terrorism in the twin border districts of Poonch and Rajouri. He mostly operated from the Lashkar-e-Taiba base camp in Muridke but had recently shifted to Rawalakot.
{{/usCountry}}Originally hailing from the Jammu region, Ahmad exfiltrated across the border in 1999. He was considered the brains behind the revival of terrorism in the twin border districts of Poonch and Rajouri. He mostly operated from the Lashkar-e-Taiba base camp in Muridke but had recently shifted to Rawalakot.
{{/usCountry}}In March, a top commander of the banned Hizbul Mujahideen was shot dead by unidentified assailants in Pakistan's Rawalpindi.
Bashir Ahmad Peer alias Imtiyaz Alam, who hailed from Jammu and Kashmir's Kupwara district, had been living in Pakistan for more than 15 years. He was accused of getting Zakir Musa, chief commander of the Ansar Gazwat-ul-Hind -- an offshoot of al-Qaeda in Kashmir -- killed in May 2019.
In February, unidentified gunmen shot dead former Al-Badr Mujahideen commander Syed Khalid Raza in the port city of Karachi in what police described as a targeted attack.
Aijaz Ahmad Ahangar, a Kashmiri terrorist functioning as a top commander of the global terror group Islamic State, was found dead -- reportedly killed by the Taliban -- in Afghanistan's Kunar Province earlier this year.