OCT 01, 2023 : Mufti Qaiser Farooq, a close friend of Hafiz Saeed of the Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), was assassinated by unidentified gunmen in Karachi, Pakistan. It is believed that Hafiz Saeed was the mastermind of the 26/11 strikes in India. Another preacher with ties to Lashkar-e-Taiba, Maulana Ziaur Rahman, died earlier this month after being shot dead by two motorcycle-riding gunmen while going for a usual evening stroll in Karachi. According to sources, Pakistani agencies are working hard to portray Ziaur Rahman and Mufti Qaiser as pious leaders with no ties to Hafiz Saeed and the LeT. Previously, the head of the Khalistan Commando Force, Paramjit Singh Panjwar, who was also connected to the ISI, was also slain.In February, Bashir Peer, the launch commander of Hizbul Mujahideen and a personal friend of Syed Salahuddin, was assassinated in Rawalpindi by unidentified gunmen close to the ISI offices and the military garrison. He was wounded by a close-range shot and died immediately. The military-industrial complex in Pakistan has become uneasy as a result of Pakistan’s ISI moving some of its “assets” to secure areas in the wake of these recent assassinations. The ISI has relocated about a dozen of these people to’safe houses’ that they have established. The earlier murders of two other Lashkar operatives, Abu Qasim Kashmiri in Rawalkot and Qari Khurram Shehzad in Nazimabad in September, made the necessity for vigilance in protecting these assets even more obvious. On September 12, local police allegedly found 11 cartridges, some of which were 9mm calibre, belonging to Rahman, a suspected terrorist connected to LeT. He had been using Jamia Abu Bakar, a seminary, as a front for his terrorist activities. He was working there as an administrator. The Pakistan Police classified the murder as a “terrorist attack,” implying that domestic “militants” were involved. Investigators are also looking into the possibility that gang rivalry was a factor in the assassination. Rahman’s murder comes after a string of assaults in Karachi on religious leaders who were all connected to terrorist organisations via the ISI and actively involved in radicalising and directing youths towards India.
