IBNS-CMEDIA: A senior operative of Pakistan-based terrorist organisation Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) has claimed during a public rally that more than 30 of the group’s members have been killed by unidentified attackers across Pakistan over the past few years.
According to media reports, the operative has been identified as Rizwan Hanif.
In a video that has gone viral on social media, Hanif alleged that Indian intelligence agencies were behind the killings.
“Over the past three to four years, more than 30 of our people have been killed by Indian intelligence agents,” Hanif was quoted as saying in the video.
He claimed that LeT operatives were killed in several Pakistani cities, including Peshawar, Karachi, Rawalpindi, Muzaffarabad and Rawalakot.
The remarks are notable as they represent a rare public admission by a senior Lashkar-e-Taiba operative that the group has suffered repeated losses in recent years.
“Indian intelligence agencies have not allowed our people to live in peace in Kashmir. Through their agents, they have martyred our people,” he alleged.
Referring to the deaths of the group’s members, Hanif also made derogatory remarks targeting followers of other religions.
He further claimed that the operatives were targeted because of their religion. However, no evidence was provided to support these allegations.
The United Nations sanctioned Lashkar-e-Taiba in 2005 for its association with Al-Qaida and the Taliban.
According to the UN, Lashkar-e-Taiba is a Pakistan-based terrorist organisation that has engaged in terrorist activities and supported sanctioned individuals and entities, including Al-Qaida and Osama bin Laden.
The UN states that LeT has carried out numerous terrorist attacks against military and civilian targets since 1993. These include the November 2008 Mumbai attacks, which killed approximately 164 people and injured hundreds more.
The organisation has also been implicated in the July 2006 Mumbai suburban train bombings, the December 2001 attack on the Indian Parliament—alongside Jaish-e-Mohammed—as well as the October 2005 bombings in New Delhi and the December 2005 attack in Bengaluru, among other incidents, according to the UN.
