Shillong, October 1: Mufti Qaiser Farooq, a close associate of Hafiz Saeed, the alleged mastermind behind the 26/11 attacks in India, was gunned down in Karachi, Pakistan, by unidentified assailants.
Earlier this month, another cleric, Maulana Ziaur Rahman, also tied to Lashkar-e-Taiba, met a similar fate during his evening stroll in Karachi. Pakistani agencies are actively trying to distance both Zia ur Rehman and Mufti Qaiser from Hafiz Saeed and his group.
As per IANS, in recent times, Paramjit Singh Panjwar, a figure linked to the ISI and leader of the Khalistan Commando Force, was also killed. Meanwhile, Hizbul Mujahideen faced a setback when its launch commander, Bashir Peer, closely associated with Syed Salahuddin, met an untimely end in Rawalpindi.
These incidents prompted Pakistan’s ISI to relocate several key figures to secure safe houses, causing unease within the nation’s military-industrial complex.
This precaution comes in the wake of earlier killings of Lashkar operatives like Abu Qasim Kashmiri and Qari Khurram Shehzad. Rahman, a suspected terrorist associated with LeT, was reportedly murdered on September 12, with investigators examining the possibility of gang rivalry as a motive. These events follow a series of attacks on religious preachers in Karachi, all with links to terror groups through the ISI, involved in radicalizing and mobilizing youths toward India.