A senior commander of the banned terror outfit Lashkar‑e‑Taiba (LeT) was found dead under suspicious circumstances at a mosque in Pakistan’s capital.
Qari Saeed Abdul Aziz, who headed Lashkar’s department assisting families of militants killed in encounters in Jammu and Kashmir, reportedly ate food at an unfamiliar eatery before arriving at the Quba Mosque to offer prayers. He suddenly collapsed at the mosque gate and died. The cause of death has not yet been established.
His death comes amid reports of a string of mysterious killings of Lashkar operatives inside Pakistan. Days earlier, Rizwan Hanif, another Lashkar member, claimed in a video that “unknown men” have killed more than 30 of its cadres in Peshawar, Karachi, Rawalpindi, Rawalakot, and Muzaffarabad over the past three to four years.
This is the first time a Lashkar operative has publicly admitted to such internal killings. Lashkar‑e‑Taiba, designated a terrorist organisation by the UN in 2005 for its links to Al‑Qaeda and the Taliban, was behind the 2008 Mumbai attacks that killed 166 people.
Authorities have not issued an official statement on Qari Saeed’s death, but the incident has intensified speculation about internal rifts and targeted eliminations within Pakistan’s terror networks.
