Sarabjit's Killer Shot Dead: Pakistan’s Fear of the ‘Unknown’ Killing Those Linked to Terror in India

There is now a fear of “unknown" in Pakistan – “unknown" men who have been targeting terrorists wanted in India. The recent being the Lahore shooting that killed Amir Sarfaraz Tamba, who killed India’s Sarabjit Singh. Tamba, with links to the Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) linked and close aide of Hafeez Saeed, had killed Singh in Jail. Singh was given death sentence in Pakistan in 1990 for allegedly spying and carrying out bomb attacks.

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Of late, Pakistan has seen close to a dozen suspicious killings of terrorists involved in various terror activities in India. This includes terrorists from outfits such as LeT and Jaish-e-Muhammad (JeM), involved in killing a passenger during the IC-814 plane hijack in 1999, killings in Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) and fuelling Khalistani terror in Punjab.

The maximum number of killings happened in September last year, which Pakistan claimed were the work of the Indian intelligence agencies. However, the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) has made it clear on multiple occasions that India doesn’t conduct operations in other countries.

Recently, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, in an exclusive interview with News18, said that India would enter Pakistan if terrorists flee there. Usually reticent in his public pronouncements, Singh was unequivocal while responding to a question by Network18’s Editor-in-Chief Rahul Joshi about a report in The Guardian, which claimed that Indian agencies had a hand in the assassination of 20 terrorists in Pakistan. “Whichever terrorist tries to disturb India from our neighbouring country or carries out terrorist attacks here, we will retaliate against them harshly," Singh said in the interview on Friday. “If he flees to Pakistan, we will enter Pakistan and kill him."

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Sources in Indian intelligence agencies told News18 that the top leadership of terror outfits is in fear and restricting their movements even in Pakistan. Sources said that very few people are aware about the leadership’s day plan, which was earlier known to many.

THE KILLINGS

In September, Muhammad Riaz Abu Qasim Kashmiri, an active leader of Jammat-ud-Dawa (JuD), which created LeT, was killed. Similarly, Maulana Ziaur Rehman, a close aide of JeM chief Maulana Masood Azhar, was killed by unknown persons in Karachi in the same month last year. He was among the chief recruiters for the terror organization.

Mufti Qaiser Farooqui of LeT was killed in Sohrab Goth in Karachi by unknown persons. Reports claimed that he was among the core group of Saeed, who masterminded the 26/11 Mumbai terror ttacks.

Another most wanted terrorist of the Khalistan Commando Force, involved in multiple cases, was killed in Johar Town of Lahore in May. Panjwar was raising funds and was also among the top drug mafia who coordinated with drug suppliers. He was recruiting young people to fuel terror in Punjab, government sources told News18.

In March, Karachi also saw the killing of another terrorist, JeM’s Mistry Zahoor Ibrahim, alias Zahid Akhund, who was infamous for his brutality, by unknown persons. He was the terrorist who killed an Indian, Rupin Katyal, and slit his throat during the hijack of IC-814 in 1999 to create fear among other passengers. He was a hardcore Jaish terrorist who lived with a fake identity.

Bashir Ahmad Pir, Syed Noor and Syed Khalid Raza of different outfits were killed in areas of Rawalpindi and Karachi. They were involved in spreading terror in India. Raza was Al Badr’s commander and was involved in terror activities in J&K. He served as the chief of Al Badr for eight years and was killed in Karachi last February.