Islamabad - On Friday (November 10), unidentified assailants on motorcycles killed Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) commander Akram Khan Ghazi in Pakistan's Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, marking the second assassination of a terrorist targeting India in the past week. Pakistani agencies are investigating potential involvement by local rival groups and internal conflicts within LeT. Ghazi, known for his anti-India speeches, had a history of terrorist activities and led the LeT recruitment cell from 2018 to 2020, responsible for identifying and recruiting individuals sympathetic to the extremist cause.

The Pakistani spy agency ISI is reportedly attempting to downplay Ghazi's assassination due to his known hate speeches against India. This incident is the third recent assassination of a top Lashkar terrorist and the sixth overall of a high-ranking commander of a terror organization operating from across the border in 2023.

Earlier this year, other notable terrorists killed include Riyaz Ahmad alias Abu Qasim in September, mastermind of the Dhangri terror attack, and Bashir Ahmad Peer alias Imtiyaz Alam in March, a top commander of Hizbul Mujahideen residing in Rawalpindi for over 15 years. Additionally, in February, former Al-Badr Mujahideen commander Syed Khalid Raza was shot dead in Karachi in what the police described as a targeted attack.