Saifullah Khalid killed in Pakistan: Abu was the in-charge of the Nepal module of LeT from mid-2000s, responsible for the recruitment of cadres, providing financial and logistic support and facilitating the movement of LeT operatives across the Indo-Nepal border.
Saifullah Khalid, a key Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) terrorist, also known as Razaullah Nizamani Khalid or Ghazi Abu Saifullah, who was the mastermind behind the 2006 terror attack on the headquarters of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) in Nagpur, was murdered by around three gunmen in the Sindh province of Pakistan on Sunday (May 18). Abu Khalid was the head of the terror operations of LeT from Nepal in the early 2000s and had many aliases, including Vinode Kumar, Mohammed Salim and Razaullah Nizamani, etc. He was involved in multiple terror attacks in India.
As per reports, Khalid left his house at Matli on the afternoon of May 18 and was gunned down by assailants near a crossing at Badni in the Sindh province.
LeT commander Saifullah was key conspirator in 3 major terror attacks in India-
1. 2005- Indian Institute of Science terror attack in Bengaluru
The Lashkar operative Saifullah Khalid was involved in the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) terror attack of 2005 in Karnataka’s Bengaluru, in which IIT professor Munish Chandra Puri was brutally killed and four others were severely injured. The terrorists had escaped from the scene. Later, police investigated the case and chargesheeted Abu Anas, who is still at large (absconding).
2. 2006- Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh headquarters terror attack in Nagpur
A close associate of Abu Anas of Lashkar, Khalid was the mastermind of the attack on RSS headquarters at Nagpur in which all three terrorists were shot dead.
3. 2008- CRPF camp terror attack in UP’s Rampur
Saifullah Khalid was also the mastermind of the deadly 2008 attack on a Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) camp at Rampur in Uttar Pradesh, in which seven personnel and a civilian were killed. The two terrorists escaped under the cover of darkness.
Know more about Saifullah Khalid-
Khalid was the in-charge of the Nepal module of LeT from the mid-2000s, responsible for the recruitment of cadres, providing financial and logistic support and facilitating the movement of LeT operatives across the Indo-Nepal border.
Khalid was closely working with LeT’s so-called launching commanders- Azam Cheema alias Babaji and Yaqoob (LeT’s chief accountant). Khalid left Nepal and returned to Pakistan after Indian security agencies exposed the module. He later worked closely with several leaders of LeT and Jamaat-ud-Dawah (JuD), including Yusuf Muzammil, LeT commander for Jammu and Kashmir, Muzammil Iqbal Hashmi and Muhammad Yusuf Taibi.
Khalid was tasked by the LeT and JuD leadership in Pakistan to undertake the recruitment of fresh cadres from the areas of Badin and Hyderabad districts of Sindh and collect funds for the organisation. According to media reports from Sindh, Khalid was declared dead at the hospital after being shot. These reports also termed it a case of personal enmity.
