SRINAGAR: Akram Khan Ghazi, commander of banned Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) has been gunned down in Pakistan’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province by unidentified bike-borne assailants, reports appearing in media said. Known for his role in radicalising youth for infiltration into Jammu and Kashmir, Gazi became the third LeT operative to be assassinated and the sixth top commander from across the border killed in 2023.
“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,” Hindustan Times reported.
His killing came within days after the beheaded body of another Lashkar operative Khwaja Shahid was recovered from a spot near the LoC. Reports appearing in the media said Shahid was behind the Sunjuwan terror attack of February 10, 2018 in which six soldiers, three attackers and one civilian were killed.
A resident of Neelam valley, he was reported missing and later his body was recovered.
Earlier, Riyaz Ahmad alias Abu Qasim was shot dead in a mosque in Rawlakot. He was said to be the main conspirator behind the Dhangri terror attack. Basically hailing from the Jammu region, Riyaz had exfiltrated across the border in 1999. Media reports suggest he was the brains behind the militancy revival in Poonch and Rajouri districts.
In March top militant of banned Hizb ul Mujahideen was shot dead in Rawalpindi. His killing came within a month after al-Badr Mujahideen militant Bashir Ahmad Peer, alias Imtiyaz Alam, was shot dead in Karachi. He was basically from Kupwara.