By Anand Venkitachalam
New Delhi: Faceless attackers, described as “unknown gunmen”, have been at work in Pakistan, targeting select people wanted in India for acts of terrorism.
In their latest action, the unknown gunmen recently shot dead Lashkar-e-Taiba commander Adnan Ahmed, who was said to be the “mastermind” of the 2015 Udhampur terror attack and the 2016 Pampore terror attack.
Adnan Ahmed was gunned down outside his residence in Karachi, adding him to a long list of people targeted by the “unknown” gunmen in various parts of Pakistan over last several months.
According to reports, Adnan was attacked on a motorbike by unknown gunmen and shot four times somewhere between the night of December 2 and 3.
The attackers vanished without so much as a trace, and the LeT commander was rushed to a Pakistani Army Hospital for emergency treatment before succumbing to his wounds on December 5.
Adnan, who also went by the alias Hanzla Adnan, was a close associate of LeT founder and 26/11 attacks mastermind Hafiz Saeed.
In the 2015 attack, carried out in a coordinated ambush on a Border Security Force convoy in the Jammu & Kashmir district of Udhampur, two BSF men lost their lives while 13 others were badly injured.
He also masterminded the 2016 Pampore attack on a Central Reserve Police Force convoy on the Srinagar-Jammu National Highway. This was a deadlier coordinated ambush than the previous one, in which over eight CRPF soldiers lost their lives and 22 were badly injured.
The gun battle that ensued in the wake of the attack led to most of the attackers being killed but some escaped.
Adnan was also heavily involved in the training of jihadists in POK for infiltration and terror operations in Kashmir Valley and was their chief communications handler.
His killing is just the latest in a string of attacks in Pakistan against many anti-India terrorist forces with many being killed in areas of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, and Punjab.
Asked about the killing of Adnan Ahmed, Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson Arindam Bagchi said on Thursday: “Those who are wanted in India to face justice for criminal and terrorist activities, we would like them to come to India and face our legal system, but I cannot comment on developments that are taking place in Pakistan.”
Prior to Adnan’s killing, Khalistani terrorist Lakhbir Singh Rode, who was one of the key commanders of the Khalistan Zindabad Force and the nephew of Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale, the biggest leader of the Khalistan movement in the 1980s, died of a heart attack in Lahore due to poisoning on December 2.
Another high priority LeT terrorist Sajid Mir, who was one of the key plotters of the horrifying attacks of 26/11, was reportedly poisoned inside a prison cell in the Central jail of the Dera Ghazi Khan District of Punjab. He is reported to be on ventilator support and in critical condition, even as Pakistani forces are looking for the prison cook who has since fled.
However, as these reports are unconfirmed and murky on details with no official statement, Mir’s ‘poisoning’ is also suspected to be a ruse by the Pakistani Army and their intelligence wing the Inter-Services Intelligence.
Many other such names who are wanted by the Indian authorities on charges of terrorism have been confirmed killed such as Syed Khalid Raza, Paramjit Singh Panjwar, Maulana Zia-ur Rehman, among others.
All these men have been killed by ‘unknown’ gunmen. Their names have been mentioned in the dossiers sent by the Indian government to the Pakistan government, asking for their extradition to India, only to be rejected by Islamabad.
Apart from Pakistan, Canada is another place where some high priority Khalistani leaders have been killed. The most famous example being Hardeep Singh Nijjar who was killed in June 2023. His killing has also led to a major diplomatic row between India and Canada with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau alleging an Indian hand in the killing of a ‘Canadian citizen’. India has rejected the allegation.
Responding to media questions about Khalistani terrorist Gurpatwant Singh Pannun’s threat of a terror attack on the Indian Parliament by December 13, the MEA spokesperson said that they won’t lend much credence or otherwise amplify the voice of “extremists who make such threats”.
Saying that India always takes threats seriously, Bagchi said: “We do take threats seriously. We are caught in a bind here. I don’t want to amplify or give too much credence to such extremists who make threats. We have taken up this matter with the US and Canadian authorities. Extremists and terrorists have the tendency to want media coverage on an issue.”
