This is the third high-profile assassination of a terrorist focussed on India this month.Earlier, unidentified men had gunned down Lashkar-e-Taiba commander Akram Ghazi in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province of Pakistan. Before him, Khwaja Shahid, one of the masterminds of the 2018 Sunjuwan terror attack in J&K, was abducted and found beheaded near theLine of Control in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir.
In Tariq’s killing, the role of local terrorists and infighting among JeM cadres are being probed, sources said.
Tariq was shot multiple times from close range by assailants who seemed familiar with the topography of Orangi Town, a sprawling slum. He died on the spot. Sources said Tariq was on his way to address a gathering against India and Kashmir.
The last two killings this month were of significant targets. Akram Khan alias Ghazi was one of the top recruiters for Lashkar between 2018-2020 and was responsible for radicalising scores of terrorists who infiltrated the Kashmir Valley in multiple batches in the last two years, sources said. Similarly, Tariq was known to be a close aide of Masood Azhar.
“Ghazi was a key member of Lashkar’s central recruitment cell and was known for his hate-filled speeches against India,” a source said, adding that Pakistani spy agency ISI has been trying to downplay the killing. He was shot dead by bike-borne men in Bajaur district.
In September, top LeT commander Riyaz Ahmed was killed outside Al Quddus Masjid in Rawalakot, PoK. He was handling Lashkar’s operations and recruitment in PoK.
In May, wanted terrorist and chief of Khalistan Commando Force Paramjit Singh Panjwar was shot dead by unidentified gunmen while he was on a morning walk near his residence in Lahore. Other recent killings include that of LeT operatives Maulana Ziaur Rehman, who was shot dead in Karachi’s Gulistan-e-Jauhar, and Mufti Qaiser Farooq, who was shot in Gulshan-i-Umar seminary in the last one month.
JeM terrorist Shahid Latif, the chief handler of the fidayeen squad that attacked the Pathankot airbase in 2016, was gunned down by unidentified assailants in a mosque in Sialkot, Pakistan on October 10.
Watch Major blow to LeT: Key commander Akram Ghazi assassinated by unidentified gunmen in Pakistan