How India’s ‘most wanted’ terrorists were eliminated on Pakistan soil

New Delhi: Over 20 dreaded terrorists, all on India’s most wanted list, were mysteriously killed in Pakistan and Canada over the last two years.

All those killed were linked to terror outfits such as Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), Hizbul Mujahideen, Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) and the banned Khalistan Tiger Force.

While Pakistan continued to be in a denial mode on terrorists enjoying safe haven on its soil, the killing of these individuals, many of whom were involved in terror attacks in India, nailed Islamabad’s lies.

As these terrorists continued to fall prey to assassins’ bullets, questions were raised in various circles as to who killed India’s enemies on Pakistani and Canadian soil.

Are the Indian secret agents behind the neutralisation of India’s most wanted terrorists as has been claimed recently by The Guardian, the world’s leading daily from the UK, in a report quoting unnamed Indian and Pakistani intelligence operatives?

The London-based newspaper reported that the Indian government ordered killings in Pakistan “as part of a wider strategy to eliminate terrorists on foreign soil.”

The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) has denied the claims by the UK newspaper reiterating an earlier statement that they were “false and malicious anti-India propaganda.”

But the report has bolstered the image of the Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led NDA government that the present dispensation in India has a zero-tolerance approach towards terrorism emanating from Pakistan or any other safe haven abroad.

The Guardian’s “disclosure” report assumes significance as it came close on the heels of PM Modi, at a rally in Bihar said, “Aaj Ka Bharat Ghar Mein Ghus Ke Marta Hai”, with many foreign affairs experts terming the international media report as a great boost for the image of PM Modi in this context.

“Enemies of India have nowhere to hide,” they remarked.

As The Guardian’s report spotlights India’s no-nonsense approach towards terrorism, internal and external security experts are recounting how terrorists on India’s most wanted list were killed one by one in Pakistan and Canada over the last two years. They went down like ninepins on the territory under the control of Pakistan and Canada.

Within the first fortnight of November last year, three LeT and JeM terrorists had been shot dead in Pakistan. Security officials see the same pattern in each case of killing: “Unknown armed men riding motorcycles perpetrated the targeted killings of militants accused of terrorism in India.”

Khwaja Shahid alias Mian Mujahid was kidnapped and later discovered beheaded near the Line of Control in Pakistan-Occupied Kashmir on November 5, 2023. He was the LeT terrorist and one of the masterminds of the 2018 terror attack on an Indian Army Camp in Sunjuwan that had claimed seven lives.

Lashkar terrorist Akram Khan, alias Akram Ghazi, was shot dead in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s Bajaur tribal district on November 9, 2023.

Similarly, JeM terrorist Raheem Ullah Tariq, a close associate of Maulana Masood Azhar, was shot dead in Karachi by unknown men on November 13, 2023.

Zahoor Mistry, the terrorist involved in the hijack of the Indian plane IC-814 in Afghanistan’s Kandahar in 1999, was killed in Pakistan on March 1, 2022. He was killed by two bike-borne assailants in Karachi’s Akhtar colony.

Security experts say that top leaders of the terror organisation JeM led by Masood Azhar had attended Mistry’s funeral. Azhar was among the three terrorists released by the Indian government when IC814 was hijacked in 1999. Mistry was said to have been living under a false identity as Zahid Akhund for several years before being shot dead.

Pakistan had pinned blame on Indian intelligence operatives for this killing, alleging that New Delhi hired assassins for the act.

Similarly, Shahid Latif, another India’s most wanted terrorists, was shot dead in October 2023 by unknown gunmen in Pakistan’s Sialkot. Latif was a key conspirator in the 2016 Pathankot terror attack in which seven security personnel were killed. Latif was killed inside a mosque.

The gunmen fled the scene on a motorcycle after killing him. Latif’s killing was then another significant addition to the list of the terrorists who were eliminated in Pakistan.

One of them was Mufti Qaiser Farooq who was gunned down by unknown men in Karachi. He was shot in a ‘targeted attack’ near a religious institution in Karachi’s Samanabad area in October 2023.

Farooq was a member of LeT and an aide of its chief and 26/11 mastermind Hafiz Saeed.

In September 2023, Ziaur Rahman, who was also a LeT operative, was killed in Karachi as two motorcycle-borne unidentified gunmen pumped multiple bullets into their target.

Rahman was on a daily evening stroll when he was gunned down.

The killing of this Lashkar operative was exactly like the murder of Paramjit Singh Panjwar, Chief of Khalistan Commando Force. Panjwar was also wanted by India for terrorism.

Panjwar was gunned down when he was out for a morning walk near his residence in Lahore in May 2023.

Hizbul commander Bashir Ahmad Peer alias Imtiyaz Alam, one of India’s most wanted designated terrorists was killed by unknown gunmen outside a shop in Rawalpindi on February 20, 2023.

Two weeks after Peer’s killing, NIA had attached his property in Jammu and Kashmir’s Kupwara district. Peer was designated as a terrorist by the government in October last year for his role in sending terrorists and providing logistic support for infiltration into Jammu and Kashmir.

He was the launching Chief of the Hizbul in Pakistan.

Saleem Rehmani was another terrorist to have been shot dead in January 2022 by unidentified gunmen. He was also wanted by India as a terrorist.

In another significant development, unidentified gunmen shot dead a top terrorist commander of Lashkar-e-Taiba, Riyaz Ahmad alias Abu Qasim, inside Al-Qudus mosque in Pakistan-Occupied Kashmir’s Rawalakot September 2023.

He had come from Kotli to offer prayers when he was shot in the head at point-blank range. He was one of the main conspirators behind the Dhangri terror attack on January 1, 2023.

Around seven people had died when terrorists struck Dhangri village in Rajouri district and fired indiscriminately.

This was the fourth such killing of a top terrorist commander operative from across the border in 2023.

Mullah Sardar Hussain Arain, Jamat-ud-Dawah, was shot dead in Nawab Shah district of Sindh in August 2023.

Amidst all the killings in Pakistan, the focus also shifted to Ottawa as Khalistani separatist leader Hardeep Singh Nijjar was killed on Canadian soil, which triggered a massive diplomatic face-off between India and Canada following Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s allegations of India’s role in the killing of a Khalistani terrorist.