A top Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) commander, wanted by Indian security agencies for several deadly terror attacks in Jammu and Kashmir, was killed by gunmen in an attack in Pakistan, officials said on Sunday.
Zia-ur-Rehman alias Nadeem alias Abu Qatal alias Qatal Sindhi was gunned down in the Jhelum area of Punjab on Saturday evening. His security guard was also killed, the officials said, quoting information received from the neighbouring country.
Abu Qatal was under heavy protection from the Pakistan Army, with both Lashkar-e-Taiba terrorists and plainclothes Pakistani military personnel assigned to his security. The attack took place near Zeenat Hotel, close to Dina Punjab University in the Jhelum area. As Zia-ur-Rehman’s convoy was passing through, unknown gunmen launched a barrage of gunfire.
Considered the most trusted handler of LeT founder and 26/11 Mumbai terror attack mastermind Hafiz Saeed, they said 43-year-old Rehman was the main handler of the terror outfit involved in the planning of various attacks in the Poonch-Rajouri region of Jammu and Kashmir.
The officials said Rehman had infiltrated the Jammu region in early 2000 and exfiltrated in 2005. He had a wide network of Over Ground Workers in Poonch and Rajouri through his old contacts, they said.
In the various investigations conducted by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) into the gruesome terror incidents in Poonch-Rajouri region, his involvement was found, officials said.
He was charge-sheeted by the NIA under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act and other sections for an attack on Hindu minorities in Dhangri Village of Rajouri District in 2023, they added.
Terrorists struck Dhangri village on January 1, 2023, and targeted villagers before fleeing the scene, leaving behind an Improvised Explosive Device (IED). While five people were killed in the firing by terrorists, two others died in the IED explosion the next morning.
As many as 14 villagers were injured in the twin attacks. The officials said Rehman is also the mastermind of the Reasi Bus Attack which was orchestrated on the day of the oath-taking ceremony of Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led government on June 9, 2024. In this attack, terrorists killed nine pilgrims and injured 41 by firing on a bus carrying pilgrims to Shiv Khori temple.
He was also involved in the Bhatta-Durian terror incident on April 20, 2023, in which five Army personnel were killed. He is also accused in the Kandi attack on officers and personnel of the 9 Para Special Forces on May 5, 2023. The attack claimed the lives of five personnel, officials said.
They said Rehman, along with Saifullah Sajid Jutt, another Pakistan-based terrorist, was the main handler of terrorists of the outfit operating in the Poonch-Rajouri belt of Jammu and Kashmir.
Born on February 4, 1982, in the Sanghar district of Sindh province of Pakistan, Rehman was in-charge of LeT’s Khuiratta dets (small group of terrorists ready to infiltrate) located in Kotli district of Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK).
He was the main link between the LeT cadres and its operators in PoK and Sindh Province of Pakistan, the officials said, adding he was the most trusted handler of Saeed.
On several occasions, the LeT founder tasked Rehman with ensuring control over the dets in PoK, the officials said. Rehman’s associates -- Riyaz Ahmed alias Abu Qasim and Hanzla Adnan -- were killed in separate incidents in Pakistan in September and December 2023.
Over a dozen terrorist commanders of different outfits, including the LeT, Jaish-e-Mohammad and Hizbul Mujahideen, have been eliminated by unidentified gunmen in Pakistan and PoK over the last three years.
