A top Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) operative, Saifullah Khalid, accused of orchestrating several high-profile terror attacks in India, has been killed in Pakistan's Sindh province, sources told. He was attacked by some unknown assailants.
Khalid was a key conspirator in three major attacks: the 2005 Indian Science Congress (ISC) attack in Bangalore, the 2006 attack on the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) headquarters in Nagpur and the 2008 CRPF camp assault in Rampur.
These attacks, carried out over a span of three years, claimed several lives and marked a massive escalation in LeT's operations on Indian soil.
Operating under the alias “Vinode Kumar,” Khalid was based in Nepal for several years, where he lived under a false identity and married a local woman, Nagma Banu.
From Nepal, he is believed to have coordinated activities for LeT, maintaining a low profile while playing a crucial role in recruitment and logistics.
More recently, Khalid had shifted his base to Matli in the Badin district of Sindh province in Pakistan. There, he continued working for Lashkar-e-Taiba, a UN-proscribed Pakistani terrorist group and its front organisation Jamaat-ud-Dawa, primarily focusing on recruitment and fund collection for terror operations.
Last week, three more Lashkar terrorists, including 'Operations Commander' Shahid Kuttay, were killed in an encounter with security forces in south Kashmir's Shopian district.
Kuttay, and the other two, Adnan Shafi, a resident of the Vanduna Melhura area of Shopian, and Ahsan ul Haq Sheikh, a resident of Murran area of the neighbouring Pulwama district, were killed in the Shukroo Keller area. Two AK series rifles, a large quantity of ammunition, grenades, and other war-like stores were found in their possession.
Kuttay, who was the Operations Commander of LeT in south Kashmir, promoted terrorist recruitment in Kashmir, also misled many young men and killed many innocent people, an official told news agency PTI.
Source: India Today
