New Delhi: Saifullah Khalid, a commander of the Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) and who headed its Nepal terror module, was killed by unknown gunmen in Pakistan’s Sindh Sunday, ThePrint has learnt.
According to sources in the know, Khalid was shot dead in the city of Badin. Also known as Vinode Kumar, Khalid was in-charge of LeT’s Nepal module, responsible for recruitment, organisation and providing financial and logistical support for the movement of terrorists across the India-Nepal border.
He allegedly orchestrated the shooting at the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) in Bengaluru in 2005, which left one person dead and injured four others. The other attacks that Khalid is said to have orchestrated across India include the terrorist attack at the headquarters of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) at Nagpur in 2006 and the one on the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) camp in Rampur, Uttar Pradesh in 2008.
The attack in Rampur killed seven CRPF personnel and a rickshaw-puller. Following the actions of Indian intelligence efforts in exposing the Nepal module of the LeT, Khalid moved back to Pakistan, according to the sources mentioned above.
There he continued his work alongside several leaders of the LeT and its front organisation, the Jamaat-ud-Dawa, including Yusuf Muzammil, who handles the recruitment and training of cadres, with the purpose of infiltration into the Union territory of Jammu and Kashmir. Muzammil is said to have also been behind the attack on IISc in 2005 along with several other attacks across India.
The other leaders of the LeT who Khalid is said to have worked with include Muzammil Iqbal Hashmi and Muhammad Yusuf Taibi. In Pakistan, Khalid was said to have been tasked with the recruitment of cadres in Badin and Hyderabad districts of Sindh, as well as focusing on the collection of funds for the organisation, according to sources.
The LeT is headquartered in Muridke, Pakistan. On 7 May, India launched Operation Sindoor, targeting the Markaz Taiba, a terrorist complex managed by the LeT in Muridke, with precision strikes, which led to damage to the training centre.
The LeT has been responsible for a series of attacks across India, including the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks in 2008, which claimed over 160 lives.
(Edited by Zinnia Ray Chaudhuri)
Also read: Op Sindoor: Inside story of what led Pakistan DGMO to make frantic calls for ‘ceasefire’