On Friday, almost all India media houses reported that Akram Khan Ghazi, a senior commander of the Pakistan-based terrorist organisation Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), was killed by unidentified bike-borne assailants in the Bajaur district of Pakistan’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. As per the reports, Ghazi was a recruiter for LeT who had radicalised many terrorists who had invaded the Kashmir Valley in several batches in recent years.
The reports came amid a series of several such mysterious killings of terrorists by unknown persons in Pakistan over the last several weeks and was reported as the second assassination of a terrorist in Pakistan in a week.
However, reports in Pakistani media and some social media accounts give a different angle to the development. According to these reports, Akram Khan was a trade leader and he was not a LeT terrorist. Moreover, against the reports of assassination by unidentified persons, ISKP (Islamic State – Khorasan Province) has claimed responsibility for the attack.
A social media account called OSINT J&K termed it ‘fake news’, saying that Akram Khan was a trader’s leader and not a LeT commander. The handle noted that this was the fifth target killing in Bajaur, and the last four were claimed by the ISKP.
Fake News ❌
— OSINT J&K (@OSINTJK) November 9, 2023
In pic Akram Khan S/o Haji Ashraf Khan He was a traders leader.
Stay away from Fake news. https://t.co/CvPyGZ97Re pic.twitter.com/WmDblXyxxC
Later, ISKP published a statement on its mouthpiece Amaq news agency saying that it killed Akram Khan. The terrorist group claimed that Khan was a part Afghan Taliban. It is notable that since the Taliban took power in Afghanistan, ISKP has executed several terror attacks in the country.
Islamic State – Khorasan Province is an affiliate of the Islamic State, and several of its members who were in Afghan jails were released or had escaped during the chaos of the Taliban advancing to Kabul in August. After occupying Kabul, the Taliban had announced that they would curtail the operations of ISKP and capture its leader Shahab al-Muhajir. However, the group has continued terror attacks in Afghanistan and Pakistan.
Akram Khan, a leading 'trader' was shot and killed by unknown assailants from Islamic State of Khorasan (ISKP) in Bajaur Tribal district, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (#KP).
— Resonant News🌍 (@Resonant_News) November 9, 2023
The groups mouthpiece Amaq news agency says he was part of the Afghan Taliban.
– The Khorasan Diary pic.twitter.com/As6LDkj8WW
The version that Akram Khan was a trader seems to be correct because several local social media accounts had reported the incident identifying him as a trader. The Khorasan Diary tweeted that Akram Khan was a leading trader who was shot by unknown attackers yesterday.
FIVE TARGET KILLINGS IN BAJAUR TRIBAL DISTRICT IN LESS THAN 2 WEEKS.
— The Khorasan Diary (@khorasandiary) November 9, 2023
One person has been shot dead in Inayat Kalay Bazar, Bajaur Tribal district, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. The fifth incident of target killing in the district within two weeks.
Akram Khan, a leading trader was going… pic.twitter.com/c7W5th6Lb7
As per a report on the incident by Pakistan-based The News, Akram Khan was a trade leader running a business of weapons sales, and his late father Ashraf Khan had also remained president of the traders’ union several times. As per the report, Akram Khan was shot by unknown assailants in Inayat Kalay Bazar in the Bajaur Tribal district, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.
Akram Khan was reportedly going for his afternoon prayer when unknown attackers opened fire at him near Inayat Kalay mosque. He was immediately shifted to a hospital but didn’t survive the attack.
The fact that the attack took place in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa also indicates that Akram was not a member of LeT, as the terror group is primarily based on PoK and areas in Pakistan close to the Indian border. The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province and other areas of Pakistan’s tribal areas have seen a series of major terror in recent times. Terror groups like Lashkar-i-Islam and Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan are active in the region, but there is no report of the presence of Lashkar-e-Taiba in the area near Afghan borders.
Therefore, it can be concluded that Akram Khan was not a LeT commander, he was a weapons trader. Moreover, the ISKP has said that they killed him, alleging that he is linked with the Afghan Taliban.
However, several terror leaders have been killed by unknown assailants in Pakistan in recent times. On 5 November, Khwaja Shahid, also known as Mia Mujahid, a key commander of Lashkar-e-Taiba and one of the masterminds of the 2018 terrorist attack on an Indian Army camp in Sunjuwan, Jammu and Kashmir which left six people dead including five Army personnel, was reportedly abducted and then found beheaded close to the Line of Control in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir, according to reports. There were marks of extreme torture on his body.
He was a resident of POK’s Neelum Valley and was kidnapped by unidentified persons. The circumstances surrounding the incident are still unknown and no organisation has taken responsibility for the action.
One of the masterminds of the Dhangri terror attack Riyaz Ahmad alias Abu Qasim was shot and killed in September inside a mosque in Pakistan-Occupied Kashmir by unidentified gunmen. He was originally from Jammu and crossed the border in 1999 as an exfiltrator. He was believed to be a major factor in the resurgence of terrorism in Jammu and Kashmir’s border districts of Poonch and Rajouri. He moved to Rawalakot recently, however, he continued to operate out of the Lashkar-e-Taiba main camp in Muridke for the most part.
An anonymous assassin shot dead a key Hizbul Mujahideen commander Bashir Ahmad Peer also known as Imtiyaz Alam in Rawalpindi in March of this year. According to the report, he had been residing in Pakistan for more than 15 years when he was charged with ordering the murder of Zakir Musa, chief commander of the Ansar Gazwat-ul-Hind which is an offshoot of al-Qaeda in Kashmir, in May 2019.
Former Al-Badr Mujahideen commander Syed Khalid Raza was eliminated in Karachi in February by unidentified gunmen in what the police called a targeted strike. Aijaz Ahmad Ahangar, a terrorist from Kashmir who served as the chief commander of the international terror organisation Islamic State was discovered dead in Afghanistan’s Kunar Province earlier this year. Taliban had reportedly assassinated him.
