New Delhi: A “launching commander” and “chief handler” for the Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), who “radicalised, recruited and trained youngsters to carry out attacks in India” — this is how intelligence sources described Hanzala Adnan, who was reportedly shot by unknown gunmen in Pakistan’s Karachi on the intervening night of 2 and 3 December.
Launching commander is a term used for an alleged leader of a terror group, who pushes the outfit’s operatives into Indian territory from launching pads along the India-Pakistan border. These alleged leaders “facilitate entry of these foreign operatives into India and make all logistical arrangements for them, including who will receive them in India”.
According to a source in intelligence, Adnan, who is said to have been highly active in Kashmir valley between 2012 and 2016, allegedly orchestrated several terror attacks in the area, including the August 2015 attack on a Border Security Force convoy on Jammu-Srinagar national highway in Udhampur, which killed two personnel and injured 11 others.
The source further alleged that Adnan played a key role in training the operatives who had infiltrated into India from Pakistan through Tangnarg just 12 days before the attack. While one of the alleged infiltrators — identified by police as Mohammad Naved, resident of Ghulam Mohammadabad in Pakistan — was arrested, a second alleged operative, Noman alias Nomi from Bahawalpur, was killed and two others managed to flee.
Adnan’s name, however, was not mentioned in the chargesheet filed by the National Investigation Agency in the incident, owing to lack of evidence.
Earlier, Adnan allegedly coordinated the attack on a CRPF convoy in J&K’s Pampore in June 2016, in which eight soldiers were killed and 22 injured.
“He was a key operative of Lashkar and launched many operatives in India after training them. One of the operatives arrested in a case had revealed in his interrogation that Adnan had trained him on how to use technology for secured communication with the handlers. He told us that he had devised an application for the same,” claimed the intelligence source quoted above.
Considered to be close to LeT chief Hafiz Saeed, the mastermind of the 26/11 Mumbai attacks, Adnan was reportedly shot at outside his house. He was taken to a Karachi hospital by the Pakistani army, where he succumbed during treatment on 5 December.
“He was close to Hafiz Saeed and part of his coterie,” the source further claimed.
Adnan’s death comes days after Sikh separatist and terrorist Lakhbir Singh Rode, nephew of late militant leader Jarnai Singh Bhindranwale, died of a heart attack in Pakistan on 2 December.
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‘Radicalised, recruited youngsters’
According to sources in the security establishment, Adnan’s main job was to “radicalise youngsters and cultivate and recruit them in LeT for terror attacks in India.”
He visited Kashmir multiple times using different assumed identities but was never arrested, claimed a second source. His name, the source said, kept cropping up in the intercepted conversations that over-ground workers had with their handlers over the phone.
“In the interceptions the operatives often spoke about Adnan and how he was providing them all logistical support. All agencies know who Adnan is and the role he played, but he mostly remained in the shadows, orchestrating these attacks from Pakistan. He was completely backed by [Pakistan’s] Inter-Services Intelligence [ISI],” the source alleged.
The source added that Adnan had also been part of a Lashkar camp in Pakistan-Occupied Kashmir where he trained recruits.
“His death is a big blow to Lashkar since he was handling a lot of operatives who have infiltrated into India in the recent past,” the source alleged.
(Edited by Poulomi Banerjee)