SRINAGAR: Commander of the banned Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) commander Razaullah Nizamani, alias Saifullah Khalid, was gunned down by unidentified assailants in Pakistan’s Sindh province on Sunday afternoon. Reports appearing in media suggest he was the key planner of the 2006 attempted car bomb attack on the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) headquarters in Nagpur.
The attack on Khalid took place in Matli town of Sindh’s Badin district, reportedly while he was stepping out of his residence. No group has claimed responsibility for the killing.
Khalid’s death is termed to be significant given his deep involvement in LeT’s transnational network over the past two decades. Media reports suggest he operated extensively in Nepal during the early 2000s, under aliases like Vinode Kumar, Mohammed Salim, and Razaullah. There, he coordinated recruitment, financing, and cross-border movement of LeT operatives across India and Nepal.
The 2006 RSS headquarters attack, which Khalid masterminded, involved LeT militants ramming an explosives-laden car into a police barrier outside the compound in Nagpur. All three attackers were neutralised by police at the scene, preventing mass casualties.
Khalid was also linked to the December 2005 Indian Institute of Science (IISc) attack in Bengaluru, which resulted in the death of Professor Munish Chandra Puri and injuries to four others. Investigations later connected him to the planning of the 2008 terror assault on a CRPF camp in Rampur, Uttar Pradesh, where seven personnel and one civilian were killed.
After Indian intelligence agencies dismantled the Nepal module he led, Khalid returned to Pakistan and resumed his activities under the LeT-Jamaat-ud-Dawah umbrella. More recently, Khalid was tasked with recruiting fresh cadres and generating funds for LeT from Sindh’s Badin and Hyderabad districts.
