Lashkar-e-Taiba co-founder Amir Hamza had no inkling of what awaited him as he stepped out of the News 24’s office in Lahore after a televised appearance alongside Judge Nazir Ahmad Ghazi
NEW DELHI: Lashkar-e-Taiba co-founder Amir Hamza had no inkling of what awaited him as he stepped out of the News 24’s office in Lahore after a televised appearance alongside Judge Nazir Ahmad Ghazi—only to be confronted moments later by two motorcycle-borne assailants who pulled up with chilling precision and opened fire on his car in a sudden, brazen attack before disappearing into streets.
Hamza survived the attempt but suffered life-threatening injuries in an attack reminiscent of the Bollywood film ‘Dhurandhar 2’, which shows the killing of Zahoor Mistry in Karachi by motorcycle-borne gunmen.He was among the terrorists allegedly involved in the 2005 attack on Indian Institute of Science in Bengaluru.
2005 attack on IISc Bengaluru
The 2005 attack, planned to spread terror on an industrial scale in India’s tech hub, was deemed a failure by its perpetrators within Lashkar-e-Taiba’s ranks.The dreaded group itself viewed it as one of its biggest failures in its attempt to unleash terror against its sworn enemy — India.The attack left one IIT Delhi professor dead and four others injured as they were leaving the campus after a conference.So flustered was LeT by the failed operation that it was discussed threadbare in one of its “classrooms” back home in Pakistan, with the help of a PowerPoint presentation on how not to botch a carefully researched terror strike, noted a former state intelligence chief.
And revealing the stark truth of this self-acknowledged LeT failure was none other than one of the trainees present in that classroom — Ajmal Kasab.It was part of LeT’s brief to target reputed educational institutions across India, and IISc was chosen after careful reconnaissance as it was seen as a soft target guarded by only a handful of unarmed security personnel.Hamza’s role in the attackLeT had used two indoctrinated youths to carry out the reconnaissance under the guise of students enrolled at Brindavan College.However, it was Hamza, then a mid-level LeT operative, who carried out the IISc attack. He failed to make a bigger “statement” thanks to an auto driver who refused to break traffic rules, while Bengaluru traffic delayed him by another 20 minutes in reaching the Tata Auditorium. Hosur said a dud Afghan hand grenade further compounded Hamza’s troubles and only one person died after Hamza sprayed 62 bullets from his assault rifle.
‘
LeT’s second most important leader
Hamza is regarded as LeT’s second most important leader after its chief Hafiz Saeed, who has been in Lahore’s Kot Lakhpat Jail since 2019 after getting convicted for several years in terror financing cases. Pakistan Markazi Muslim League (PMML), a political front of Hafiz Saeed’s banned Jamaat-ud-Dawah (JuD), strongly condemned the attack on Hamza and demanded the immediate arrest of those involved in the incident. The party also urged the government to ensure effective security for “religious scholars”. In a joint statement, PMML leaders, including Hafiz Talha Saeed, said the broad daylight firing incident in Lahore raises serious questions over the Punjab government’s security apparatus and reflects negligence and failure on the part of the authorities. The leaders called on the government to ensure the swift arrest of the attackers and to provide adequate protection to religious scholars. Hamza has been designated as a terrorist by the US. In the past, he served as the head of LeT’s “special campaigns” department. In 2018, Hamza formed a fundraising group for the LeT after the Pakistani government banned JuD and the Falah-e-Insaniat Foundation.
