New Delhi: The killing of terrorist outfit Khalistan Commando Force (KCF) head Paramjit Singh Panjwar in Lahore on 6 May has brought back the spotlight on a list of 20 wanted criminals and terrorists that India handed to Pakistan for their extradition over two decades ago in 2002.
Apart from Panjwar, the list include wanted criminals and terrorists from Jammu and Kashmir, Punjab, as well as those accused of hijacking the IC-814 in 1999 and those involved in the 1993 Mumbai blasts who had fled to Pakistan.
Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) chief Masood Azhar, 26/11 mastermind and Lashkar-e-Taiba co-founder Hafiz Mohammed Saeed, Hizbul Mujahideen founder Syed Salahuddin, fugitive don Dawood Ibrahim and his key associate Chhota Shakeel are among the other wanted men.
ThePrint looks into where some of the remaining mentioned in the list are — starting with Masood Azhar and those associated with the IC-814 Indian Airlines hijacking.
JeM founder Masood Azhar was among three top terrorists released by India as part of the hostage release deal following the Indian Airlines IC 814 plane hijack by his brother and supporters.
Upon his release, the Bahawalpur-based maulana-cum-mercenary founded JeM which attacked Parliament on December 13, 2001. Azhar is also wanted for an attack on the Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) Assembly on October 1, 2001, in which 38 people were killed.
In 2008, he was connected to the 26/11 terrorist attacks in Mumbai. Further, he is believed to be the mastermind of the Pathankot attack in 2016 and the Pulwama attack in 2019.
According to news reports, the Pakistan government has asked the Taliban to trace and arrest the JeM chief in Afghanistan. He is still far away from being extradited to India.
Meanwhile, Masood Azhar’s elder brother Ibrahim Athar, Zahoor Mistri, Shahid Akhtar Sayed, and Azhar Yusuf — the IC-814 hijackers — were also part of the list sent in 2002. Zahoor Mistri was killed in a shooting in Karachi in March 2022. Masood Azhar attended the funeral of Mistri, according to news reports.
Ibrahim Athar, meanwhile, is also wanted for his role in the Parliament attack in 2001. According to Ministry of Home Affairs documents, as of 2020, a red corner notice was issued against the Pakistani national to bring him to India. The MHA notified Athar as a terrorist under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act in 2020.
Azhar Yusuf was believed to be heading the JeM’s Balakot camp that was targeted by the Indian Air Force (IAF) in February 2019. Reports suggest that Shahid Akhtar Sayed has shifted from Karachi to the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province in search of a safe harbour.
A former engineer-turned-fanatic preacher and co-founder of Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), Hafiz Mohammed Saeed is known to be the mastermind behind the 26/11 attacks in Mumbai. Originally, he was known to operate from Muridke town, near Lahore in Pakistan.
In 2020, under pressure from the US and the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), a Pakistan anti-terrorism court convicted Saeed on terrorism-related charges and sentenced him to five and a half years in prison.
One year on, Pakistan accused India of carrying out a bomb blast near Saeed’s house in Lahore. Consequently, the three accused were sentenced to life imprisonment.
However, Saeed is still far away from an Indian prison.
Absconding since 1993, Hizbul Mujahideen chief Syed Salahuddin is reportedly operating from Pakistan. In 2020, India designated him as a terrorist. In April, two properties owned by his sons were attached in a terror-related investigation by the National Investigation Agency (NIA). Hizbul Mujahideen had taken responsibility for several attacks on security forces in J&K.
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D-Company & associates
Underworld Dawood Ibrahim — the man behind the planning and financing of 13 explosions in Mumbai in 1993 that claimed almost 300 lives — is wanted in connection with cases of arms supply, counterfeiting, drugs trade, funding alleged criminals, murder and smuggling. He reportedly lives in and operates from Karachi, Pakistan.
A key associate of Dawood, Chhota Shakeel is wanted for murders, extortions, kidnappings, and blackmailing of businessmen and film stars in India.
Accused of executing the Mumbai blasts, ‘Tiger’ Ibrahim Memon is also wanted in several cases of murder, extortion, kidnap, terrorism and smuggling arms and explosives in India.
Apart from being wanted in cases of terrorism and smuggling, Ayub Memon is accused of helping his brother Tiger Memon carry out the Mumbai blasts.
Further, Mumbai blast convict Yakub Memon — the brother of Tiger and Ayub — was hanged in a Nagpur jail in 2015.
Two more Dawood associates Ishaaq Atta Hussain and Sagir Sabir Ali Shaikh also feature on the list for their role in a conspiracy to kill former deputy prime minister L.K. Advani. Reports suggest that they are operating from Karachi.
Khalistan exponents & others
The list also mentioned the founders of Khalistani outfits, including Wadhawa Singh Babbar, Lakhbir Singh Rode, and Gajinder Singh.
Wadhawa heads the Babbar Khalsa International, which was designated as a terrorist outfit by the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) in 2020.
During the decades-long insurgency in Punjab in the 1970s and 1980s, the outfit took part in several killings and assassinations. He is also wanted for the assassination of former Punjab chief minister Beant Singh in 1995.
According to the South Asia Terrorism Portal, Wadhawa is still operating from Pakistan.
Rode, a relative of militant leader Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale, heads the pro-Khalistan International Sikh Youth Federation. He is wanted in cases of arms smuggling, conspiracy to attack government leaders in Delhi, and inciting religious hatred in Punjab.
Rode is also said to have links with radical preacher Amritpal Singh, who was arrested in April after a month-long chase. He is allegedly based in Lahore.
Head of the pro-Khalistan outfit Dal Khalsa, Gajinder Singh was sentenced in Pakistan for hijacking an Indian Airlines plane to Lahore in 1981. Later, he was released from jail in 1994.
According to a report in The Tribune, in 2022, he posted a photo on his Facebook page that shows him standing in front of Gurdwara Panja Sahib at Hasan Abdal in Pakistan’s Punjab.
Khalistan Zindabad Force chief Ranjit Singh ‘Neeta’ is also on the list. He faces at least 11 terrorism cases in India. Further, ‘Neeta’ is among the accused in the 1996 bombing of the Jhelum Express, as well as attacks on buses in 1997, the blasts on Sealdah and Pooja express trains in 2000, and the explosion at Jalandhar bus station in April 2006.
Like Rode, Neeta is said to be based in Lahore.
The last in the list is Delhi-born Abdul Karim alias Tunda who is blamed for more than 30 bomb blasts in New Delhi and parts of northern India in 1996-97. He was on the run for over a decade, including in Pakistan, before he was arrested near the India-Nepal border
in 2013.
In February 2023, a court acquitted him in the 1997 Rohtak twin blasts. He, however, remains in jail for his role in a bomb blast in Sonipat in 1996.
(Edited by Tony Rai)
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