The head of 313 brigade of Alqaeda and operational head of Alqaeda, related to the PNS attack, has he been killed in a drone strike? Is it true or a hoax?
Ilyas Kashmir, the alleged mastermind of PNS Mehran terror attack, has been killed, sources said.
According to the British media, Kashmiri was among the nine killed in a drone attack in South Waziristan on the night between Friday and Saturday.
The US State Department holds Kashmiri’s Harkatul Islami organisation as responsible for various terrorist attacks in Pakistan and India.
The death of Kashmir could not be confirmed from independent sources.
The drone attack was launched in Ghwa Khawa, around 20 kilometres from Wana, when a group of Taliban was drinking tea in a garden. Nine people were dead and three were injured in the attack. All the killed were Punjabi Taliban, it is said.
An eye-witness on the condition of anonymity claimed that Kashmiri had come to the area half an hour ago, but fell prey to the drone attack. According to him, two missiles were fired at them, rocking the entire region. The local have buried the victims in a local graveyard.
Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani has said that he does not have any information about Kashmiri’s death.
Some history of Ilyas Kashmiri…the news item is about two years old…
Ilyas Kashmiri survived last month’s airstrike in Pakistan
By BILL ROGGIOOctober 13, 2009
**A senior al Qaeda leader and longtime Pakistani jihadi with strong ties to Pakistan’s military and intelligence services who was thought to have been killed in a US airstrike in the tribal areas has surfaced.
Ilyas Kashmiri, the operational chief of the Harkat-ul Jihad Islami (HuJI) and al Qaeda’s Brigade 313, survived the Sept. 14 airstrike in the village of Turikhel near the town of Mir Ali in Taliban-controlled North Waziristan. Kashmiri was thought to have been killed with Najmuddin Jalolov, the leader of the Islamic Jihad Group, an Uzbek terror group based in Pakistan’s tribal areas. Pakistani and US intelligence officials were certain Kashmiri was killed in the attack.
Kashmiri was recently confirmed to be alive by Syed Saleem Shahzad, a reporter for the Asia Times. **Kashmiri granted an interview to Shahzad, which will be published on Oct. 14. In the interview, Kashmiri “outlines al Qaeda’s master plan to combat the US and its proxies.”
**Kashmiri is very likely to be directly linked to last weekend’s terror assault on Pakistan’s Army General Headquarters in Rawalpindi. Dr. Usman, the tactical commander of the assault group, is a senior member of the Harkat-ul Jihad Islami and served under Kashmiri.
Ilyas Kashmiri is considered by US intelligence to be one of al Qaeda’s most dangerous commanders. He served as the operational chief of the Harkat-ul Jihad Islami, an al Qaeda-linked terror group that operates in Pakistan, Kashmir, India, Afghanistan, and Bangladesh. Kashmiri was recently listed as the fourth most wanted terrorist by Pakistan’s Interior Ministry.
Kashmiri is thought to have played a major role in the multi-pronged suicide attack against government and security installations in the eastern Afghan province of Khost in May, the military intelligence official said.
Last year, Kashmiri reportedly drafted a plan to assassinate General Ashfaq Pervez Kiyani, Pakistan’s top military officer, but the plan was canceled by al Qaeda’s senior leadership, according to a report in the Asia Times.
Harkat-ul-Jihad-al-Islami, Laskhar-e-Jhangvi, Lashkar-e-Taiba, Jaish-e-Mohammed, and several other Pakistani terror groups have merged with al Qaeda in Pakistan, and operate under the name of Brigade 313. This group is interlinked with Pakistan’s Taliban and also recruits senior members of Pakistan’s military and intelligence services, a senior US official told The Long War Journal.
Brigade 313 has been behind many of the high-profile attacks and bombings inside Pakistan, including multiple assassination attempts against former President Pervez Musharraf and Prime Minister Gilani.** Brigade 313 is one of the six known units in the Lashkar al Zil, al Qaeda’s paramilitary Shadow Army.
**Kashmiri is also a longtime asset of Pakistan’s military and intelligence services. He served as a commando in the elite Special Services Group (SSG), Pakistan’s special operations unit trained by Britain’s Special Air Service. In the early 1990s, Kashmiri was ordered by the military to join the Harkat-ul Jihad Islami, and later he was urged to join the Jaish-e-Mohammed, which he refused to do.
Kashmiri reportedly dropped out of favor with the military after refusing the military’s suggestion to join Jaish-e-Mohammed.** In 2003 he was arrested after being accused of involvement in the assassination attempts against then-President Musharraf, and was later released. After the 2007 Pakistani Army assault on the radical Lal Masjid in Islamabad, he set up camp in Ramzak in North Waziristan, and was joined by several Pakistani Army military officers. Kashmiri is widely thought to have maintained his links with the radical elements in Pakistan’s military and intelligence services throughout his time operating with jihadi groups.
Kashmiri was behind the assassination of Major General Faisal Alvi, the retired commander of the SSG, in Rawalpindi in late 2008. Alvi was killed just months after sending a letter to General Kiyani. In the letter, Alvi accused two generals of forcing his retirement. According to The Times Online, Alvi said he was forced to retire after threatening to expose the two generals’ involvement with the Taliban.
i wish this dojakhi goes to jahannum
but previous cases of such unconfirmed news proved to be not true ,
eyewitness accounts have been continuously proved either exagerated or just to get attention on media , most of the times unreliable with fabricated accounts given by sesational and idiotic creatures have landed the media persons and channels in emberassing situations . latest case was one laila ka diwana majnu who went to the length of fabricating a storey about attackers of mehran base, this guy made a fool of hamid mir and geo. so i do not believe about this storey unless some govt. agency announces.
I haven't followed the news properly, was he one of the claimers for the attack? Whether or not he was part of PNS attack I say good riddance to all the militants that get killed.
Read Saleem Shahzad’s last story which probably got him killed, in which he claims that 313 brigade of Alqaeda whose Ilyas Kashmiri was the head had some sympathizers in the armed forces, and the navy had removed some alqaeda related people from Navy and then it was revenge from 313 brigade. He is thought to be the person behind GHQ, PNS attacks and he had made a plan to assassinate Pervez Kiani as well but alqaeda leadership prevented him from carrying it out.