Ilyas Kashmiri 'killed' in US drone attack: report

[Dark Sorrow]

Time to launch a "Drones against Naxalites" initiative. Wish we had predators. Maosist would have turned believers in an instant.

You want us to use drones against our own people. Are you in your right mind!!! Time to get out of the colonial mentality.
Mind you US is conducting drone operation against some one else in some other country..

 

[mayfair]

You want us to use drones against our own people. Are you in your right mind!!! Time to get out of the colonial mentality.
Mind you US is conducting drone operation against some one else in some other country..

Screw own people. If they are hell bent on killing you with a gun in their hand, they are legitimate targets. These people aim to over throw the system in a bloody revolution and are gun toting soldiers. Armed action against such scum is justified and legal. Step off yer high horse.

 

[LETHALFORCE]

Last week US was asking Zardari for Kashmiri. How convenient he is reported to be dead now?

 

[utubekhiladi]

Unless this news is confirmed by USA, i will treat this news as HOAX. i can't believe if Pakistanis says that he is dead.

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — One of Pakistan's most wanted militant commanders, Ilyas Kashmiri, has been killed in an American drone strike in the tribal territory of South Waziristan, residents and a militant member in the area said Saturday....

now, why would i believe what militant or Pakistanis has to say for that matter? there is no word from CIA regarding this so far...
so before opening champagne please wait until we confirm this news from CIA.

we all know usa has given time to pakistanis to arrest some of the most wanted criminals including kashmiri. kashmiri is too valuable to lose so i think this is all a drama to protect kashmiri.

 

[Blackwater]

Thanks to Ameerica ,,,doing our job.

 

[Sikh_warrior]

i can smell some fans of Arundhiti Roy here!

anyway coming to the topic, attack on mehran proved the last straw for IK, his days were numbers and what better way to go about it and let yanks take him out!

ISI and other pak agencies and govt are silent, because they dont want to acknowledge any information about IK, fearing the backlash by his fellow terrorists! they dont want to be seen as the ones who took out IK, blame it on the yanks!

anyway, one more bad guy has been despatched to the playboy mansion!

 

[chex3009]

Pakistan probably aided Kashmiri killing


Courtesy : Al-Jazeera

 

[nitesh]

let him rot in hell, I feel relieved today

24-yr-old sepoy was beheaded in 2000 LoC raid - Indian Express

for those who don't know:

24-yr-old sepoy was beheaded in 2000 LoC raid - Express India

Indian Army records show that the man who was beheaded in 2000 was Sepoy Bhausaheb Maruti Talekar of the 17 Maratha Light Infantry (MLI).

Ilyas Kashmiri, according to a report in the Pakistani daily The News, was behind the guerilla attack on an Indian Army post in Nowshera sector in February 2000.

 

[mayfair]

For Indian next targets should be

Hafeez Lahori
Daawod, Shakil and Tiger Karachiwaale
Salauddin Muzaffarabadi

Their next moniker- دوزخی

 

[ejazr]

TTP and HuJI have admitted that Ilyas Kashmiri is killed. Kashmiri was a former SSG in PA and was suspected to be involved in major attacks at GHQ and Mehran base.

Al-Qaeda loses its India link with Ilyas Kashmiri's death - World - DNA
Ilyas Kashmiri's death removes a key al Qaeda man who would also keep India in sight while planning terrorist attacks around the world. In a recent interview to slain Pakistani journalist Saleem Shahzad, Kashmiri said United States, Europe, Israel and India remain al-Qaeda's prime targets. According to Shahzad's book, Kashmiri believed that India would intervene in Afghanistan and if that happened he planned to launch 'Ghazb-e-Hind' — a massive terror operation against India. According to intelligence agencies, Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) had already begun a large recruitment drive in India to create a force for Kashmiri to train.

Set to take over as the next al Qaeda chief after Osama bin Laden's death, Kashmiri was recently hobbled by the successive blows to al Qaeda and its marginalisation. The al Qaeda in Afghanistan and Pakistan seems to have shrunk to sympathisers in the South Waziristan Tribal Agency. As a result, Kashmiri's threat to India had also been reduced. Kashmiri could have, however, acted as a motivator and dispatcher of jehadis to Kashmir and elsewhere had he been able to get out of the tight corner which Pakistani Army operations in FATA and US drone attack had put him in.

With the death of Kashmiri, the threat to India of terrorist strikes by a potent organisation such as al Qaeda has considerably gone down. He was giving operational assistance to the LeT for carrying out attacks in India — the most dreaded one being 26/11 attack in Mumbai. Kashmiri was on India's Most Wanted list that was handed over to Pakistan by the Home Secretary G K Pillai at the Secretray level talks in March. Arrested by the Indian forces in 2005, Kashmiri had escaped prison and was since been on the run.
In an interview to Shahzad, Kashmiri had said that he was planning bigger terror attacks and that the 26/11 attack in Mumbai was "nothing compared to what has already been planned for the future." He said so with confidence after having personally approved and supervised the Mumbai attacks along with LeT commander Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi.

Former Intelligence Bureau chief Ajit Doval, sees Kashmiri's death as a "very positive development" and believes that his death may weaken the LeT operations in India. "Kashmiri was closely associated with al Qaeda and LeT, whom he assisted in training and carrying out terror attacks. His death is certainly a severe blow to LeT as he supported LeT in its operations in India," Doval said.
Doval describes him as a good executer of orders and plans.

"Kashmiri was very good in converting ideas and executed them to near perfection on ground. Though he was with al Qaeda, Kashmiri could provide expertise to any group working against India and Pakistan. He was not like Hafeez Sayeed who would go by Islam but an important operational man who would not hesitate in using RDX, detonators, AK47 and modern warfare equipments.

He filled the operational gap in al Qaeda with 313 Brigade, which he headed since he was effective in a combat role," Doval added.

 

[ejazr]

Ilyas Kashmiri was also suspected in providing assistance in Mumbai attacks and was planning attacks within India as well. I am more happy with his death than OBL really keeping in mind that Kashmiri was more focussed on Indian targets (although he did attacka Pakistani military targets too) than OBL and was actively involved in it. Thank God he has been sent to hell.

The Hindu : Front Page : Ilyas Kashmiri wanted to provoke India-Pakistan war

Hasan Suroor

LONDON: Ilyas Kashmiri, who had a pathological hatred for India and a long history of launching cross-border terror attacks, had in recent years become obsessed with the idea of provoking a war between India and Pakistan in order to distract Pakistan's attention from its campaign against al-Qaeda, according to a new book Inside al-Qaeda and the Taliban: Beyond Bin Laden and 9/11 by the murdered Pakistani investigative reporter Syed Saleem Shahzad, the only journalist to have interviewed Kashmiri.

As the pressure on al-Qaeda grew, Kashmiri became increasingly desperate to get the Pakistan Army off its back by engineering a confrontation with India "thereby allowing al-Qaeda to manipulate its war against NATO in Afghanistan.'' And it was he — and not Pakistan's intelligence agency ISI, Shahzad insists — who masterminded the Mumbai attacks to "provoke India to invade Pakistan.''

Shahzad claims that in the immediate aftermath of the attacks as "Pakistan and India stood eye to eye, the fighting between Pakistan's military and al-Qaeda militants came to a complete halt'' with militants saying "Qunut-e-Nazla (prayers in days of war).''

"They prayed that al-Qaeda and the Pakistan Army would join and fight India together,'' he writes, pointing out that as the threat of a war loomed, with the Pakistan Army "readying for a showdown with India'' al-Qaeda used the "opportunity" to disrupt NATO supply lines in the Khyber Agency.

Plan for bigger attack

In the event, a war was averted but Kashmiri didn't give up. In a rare media interview in October 2009, the notoriously elusive Kashmiri told Shahzad that he was planning a much bigger attack on India with the purpose of plunging the region into a war.

"Mumbai was nothing compared with what has already been planned for India in the future,'' he said.

Shortly afterwards, David Headley and several members of Kashmiri's outfits were arrested and they confessed to planning simultaneous attacks on a number of high-profile targets in India including its nuclear installations and the National Defence College in Delhi.

"The aim was to keep Pakistan and India engaged in hostilities, which would provide a breathing space to enable al-Qaeda and its Taliban allies to realise their objectives in Afghanistan,'' Shahzad argues.

Kashmiri, he says, had vowed to wreak havoc on India or what he calls "Ghazwa-e-Hind.'' Sometime last year, he received an email — the first-ever —from Kashmiri which he says amounted to "a declaration of war'' against India. In it, he threatened to continue to target India until the Army left Kashmir and the Kashmiris were given the right to self-determination. He also threatened to "take revenge'' against the "massacre'' of Muslims in Gujarat in 2002 and the demolition of the Babri Masjid.

Kashmiri wrote: "We warned the international community to play their role in getting the Kashmiris their right of self-determination and preventing India from committing brutalities in Kashmir, especially in Bandipur, raping women, and behaving inhumanly with Muslim prisoners. We warn the international community not to send their people to the 2010 Hockey World Cup, IPL and the Commonwealth Games. Nor should their people visit India — if they do, they will be responsible for the consequences. We, the mujahideen of 313 Brigade, vow to continue attacks all across India until the Indian army leaves Kashmir and gives the Kashmiris their right of self-determination. We assure the Muslims of the subcontinent that we will never forget the massacre of Muslims in Gujarat and the demolition of the Babri Masjid. The entire Muslim community is one body and we will take revenge for all injustices and tyranny. We again warn the Indian Government to compensate for all its injustices otherwise they will see our next action. From 313 Brigade.''

Ironically, for a man who is alleged to have been bumped off by ISI though the latter denies this, Shahzad clears the agency of any direct involvement in the Mumbai attacks and claims that it was masterminded almost single-handedly by Kashmiri using retired Pakistan Army officers. Although the ISI had endorsed a Lashkar-e-Toiba plan to launch an attack in India it was intended as a "low-profile routine'' operation. Even its targets were not known and "the official policy was to drop it.'' Kashmiri hijacked it and turned it into one of the world's most devastating terror atrocity.

"Despite both Headley and [Tahawwur Rana] identifying figures such as Kashmiri, retired Major Haroon and retired Major Abdul Rahman as responsible for the India operations, the Indian establishment and the U.S. counter-terrorism experts continue to suspect the Pakistan army and its proxy LeT of being behind the Mumbai carnage. At one point, they even thought that the Pakistan army and al-Qaeda had developed relations to operate against India together!,'' Shahzad writes dismissing allegations of ISI's involvement in the attacks.

 

[thakur_ritesh]

Ilyas Kashmiri was also suspected in providing assistance in Mumbai attacks and was planning attacks within India as well. I am more happy with his death than OBL really keeping in mind that Kashmiri was more focussed on Indian targets (although he did attacka Pakistani military targets too) than OBL.

Thank God he has been sent to hell.

this is a general reply to the sentiment of rejoice on kashmiri's death.

fair enough, he was india focused but was the operation to take him out really done on our behest? i have serious doubts, he was taking out his own mentors, the PA/ISI, though in doing so he was without a doubt being assisted by the so called rouge elements within the pak armed forces and his foot prints much like those of AQ were traced to hurting american interests, so in the end the call by the americans that the pakistanis do something about this chap and others within a specific time period had everything to do with american and pakistani interests coming under threat and only then them taking on this chap which otherwise would have never happened.

now the problem is, because one ilyas kashmiri went rouge doesnt at all mean the PA/ISI will give up on other terrorists and terror infrastructure which are india centric or the US will not force the pakistanis to take those terrorists on, so where does the rejoice come from? if they could make one ilyas kashmiri back in the days, there is no doubt they are capable enough to create many more.

our media wants us to believe we had a big point to score in there and fair enough its all a part of psyops countries play where media plays a part but is there anything to gain at a time when the terror infrastructure remains intact in pak from where threats on regular basis emerge for india.

the only advantage one can see emerging is, we could propagate that pakistanis can never be trusted by anyone but are the new recruits and existing terrorists who have not gone rouge and are india centric ready to listen?

 

[ejazr]

^^^^Valid points,

But this couldn't have been done with ISI/PA approval. And although we are not directly involved in this, the willingness of PA/ISI to go after people like Ilyas Kashmiri I think indicates that they don't want any terrorist attacks in India at the moment. Not out of altruistic reasons, but because the costs inflicted to them were so high diplomatically and politically in the aftermath of 26/11 that they don't have the stomach for more.

Ilyas Kashmiri was an excellent commander and very effective leader from what we know. According to some he was even poised to become the leader of Al Qaeda. This would have meant that Al Qaeda which had been US and Arab centric under OBL might have become more Indian-subcontinent centric. By eliminating him, we have atleast removed the possibility that a Pakistani with an anti-India mindset would head Al Qaeda and for now atleast sowed confusion in the militant ranks like HuJI.

 

[mayfair]

^^ It's very unlikely that ISI/PA did so on pretext of not wanting any terror attacks to happen in India. It's more likely that Kashmirir was morphng into a Frankenstein hell bent on taking on his ISI/PA overlords. Not to forget that he was an ex-SSG and thoroughly radicalised and was not probably amenable to keeping his operations India-centric. He most likely wanted to target India and the West (read America) and when TSPA tried to dissuade him from doing so, he may have turned on them as well- Mehran, Musharraf, GHQ.

TSPA are happy as long as their assets are a pain in the backside for Indians and/or Americans but not themselves. Which is why Hafeez Saeed, Syed Salauddin, Masood Azhar, Jallaluddin and Sirajuddin Haqqani etc will be mollycoddled till they go rogue like Kashmiri.

Of course as long as we accrue these fringe benefits we have no reason to complain. But to see this situation as something more than what it is- America and TSPA culling a rabid dog that turned on the ones holding its leash is being overly optimistic. If India can instigate more of these intra-assest cock fights, they make take each other out and what's left we can pick out one by one.

 

[nitesh]

One point, we should not be thankful in any which way to US that he was killed, but we should be thankful to the resolve with which we stood the influx of these mofos, and still going strong. Seeing our progress despite of this mayhem, they ran to other targets, and now getting roasted by everyone. Most of the times we underestimate the toughness inside behind the softness outside of India.

 

[ejazr]

@mayfair

Like I mentioned earlier, ISI/PA don't want any terrorist attacks in India for now, not out of altruistic reasons, but because the costs inflicted to them were so high diplomatically and politically in the aftermath of 26/by GoI. A case study in coercive diplomacy so to speak.

If we had gone to war with Pakistan say after 26/11, then we would certainly be playing into Kashmiri's hand as well as those in the PA/ISI who are sympathetic to their cause. Not to mention, undercutting US efforts in taking out terrorists in FATA.

 

[mayfair]

@ejazr

ISI/TSPA may not want terrorist attacks in India, for their own reasons. But then why take out only Kashmiri when they have a host of India-centric groups on their payroll? The only reason could be that Kashmiri went rogue and was unwilling to play the flute to ISI orchestra unlike others such as Saeed, Haqqani etc. It's the same story with all the se rogues, once they get too big for their boots, their fate is sealed- Lal Masjid operation is a classic example.

ISI/Pak army are suffering loss of dignity from all sides. Even common folk and usually docile and compliant media is beginning to question the army, unthinkable sometime ago. What better to divert attention and project themselves as the defenders of fortress Pakistan? Invoke a conflict with India, Nothing unites Pakistani populace than India bogey. The stratetic assets against India would be most valuable in this instance. Why would they defang these weapons of asymmetric warfare?

No sir, Kashmiri was dispatched to hell for two very likely reasons
1. He turned on Americans and they came down heavily on the Pukis to take him out or they will and to choose between Kashmiri and themselves. It's very likely that the generals to save their skin agreed to sell him out.
2. It's probable Kashmiri came to know of this treachery and turned on his ISI/PA overlords- PNS Mehraan happened. ISI/PA were alarmed and probably begged the Americans to advance their plans to terminate Kashmiri.

These in my opinion culminated in the events of June 3, 2011.

 

[nrj]

India has no confirmation about Ilyas Kashmiri's killing

India has no confirmation that top al Qaeda linked militant, Ilyas Kashmiri, a key planner behind the Mumbai terror attack, was killed in a targeted US drone strike in Pakistan. Government sources said New Delhi has contacted several friendly countries asking about the authenticity of the reports which suggested that Kashmiri, a key conspirator in the 26/11 Mumbai attacks and wanted in India for his role in the terror acts, was killed.

"No one has confirmed his killing yet. Indian intelligence agencies also have not been able to corroborate the report," a source said.

Since Indian agencies are trying to verify the reports from different sources, a confirmation -- either way -- about Kashmiri's fate is expected within a day or two.

On Saturday, secretary (Internal Security) in the ministry of home affairs UK Bansal said Kashmiri was wanted in India for criminal conspiracy and his prime agenda was to harm India.

47-year-old Kashmiri, a former Pakistani army commando, on whose head the US had put a price of $5 million, was killed when a predator drone fired four missiles on Friday night at a compound in Ghwakhwa area of South Waziristan.

His outfit Harkat-ul-Jihad-al-Islami confirmed his death in faxed messages to TV channels in Islamabad. BBC Urdu service broke the news first on Saturday.

India has no confirmation about Ilyas Kashmiri's killing - Hindustan Times

 

[nitesh]

I will trust Indian intelligence on this matter, in a way multiple sources are confirming it's ticket to jannat, I am getting suspicious that he is being saved to be used for some other day

 

[ajtr]

HUJI releases photograph of Ilyas Kashmiri after death, but it isn't him​

Left: a purported photograph of Ilyas Kashmiri after his death. The picture is actually that of Abu Dera Ismael Khan, a Lashkar-e-Taiba fighter who was one of the members of the suicide assault team that attacked Mumbai, India, in November 2008. Right: Ilyas Kashmiri before his death. The image on the left is published courtesy of the SITE Intelligence Group.

Read more: Questions emerge over HUJI's statement on al Qaeda leader Ilyas Kashmiri's death - The Long War Journal

In addition to the statement released by Harkat ul Jihad-al-Islami spokesman named Abu Hanzla Kashir that announced the death of top al Qaeda military leader Ilyas Kashmiri in the June 2 Predator airstrike in South Waziristan, HUJI also released a photograph that is purported to be Kashmiri after his death. The photograph of Kashmiri above on the left and HUJI's statement below have been republished with the permission of the SITE Intelligence Group.

Kashmiri is said to be 47 years old when he was killed, and is known to have been blinded in one eye after fighting the Soviets in Afghanistan during the 1980s. Note that the picture shows the face of a clean-shaven man. Kashmiri is well known for photographs with his full beard and aviator sunglasses. One eye does appear to have been blinded, however its is difficult to determine if the injury was the result of an injury years ago or an injury sustained in a Predator strike.

Updated:

HUJI clearly is trying to pull a fast one here. With thanks to the many informed commenters here at Threat Matrix/The Long War Journal, we've learned that the photograph is actually that of Abu Dera Ismael Khan, one of the members of the suicide assault team that attacked Mumbai, India, in November 2008. You can see the image here.
This certainly calls into question the validity of the official HUJI statement made by Abu Hunzala Kashir. Keep in mind that another HUJI leader, Qari Mohammad Idrees, claimed Kashmiri was killed. So did HUJI botch the photograph, or are they attempting to fake Kashmiri's death? If the latter, this would be the first time that I've detected this happening.

Translation of the statement released by HUJI on Kashmiri's death:

On behalf of Harkat Jihad al-Islami 313 Brigade we confirm the fact that our leader and Commander-in-chief Mohammad Ilyas Kashmiri, along with other companions, have been martyred in an American drone attack at 11:15 pm on June 3, 2011 and Insha Allah (God willing) the present pharaoh America will see our full revenge very soon. Our only target is America.

Spokesperson
(Harkat ul Jihad al-Islami) 313 Brigade

Abu Hunzala



Read more: HUJI releases photograph of Ilyas Kashmiri after death, but it isn't him - Threat Matrix

Questions emerge over HUJI's statement on al Qaeda leader Ilyas Kashmiri's death​

Questions are emerging over the validity of a statement released by a Pakistani terror group that claimed its leader, Ilyas Kashmiri, was killed in a US Predator airstrike late last week. A photo purported to show Kashmiri after his death is really a picture of a jihadi killed during the Mumbai, India terror assault in November 2008, while discrepancies in the text of the statement have emerged.

Kashmiri, a senior al Qaeda military commander as well as the leader of Harkat ul Jihad-al-Islami [HUJI] and Brigade 313, is said to have been killed in the June 2 Predator airstrike in the Wana area of South Waziristan. Less than one day after the strike, Abu Hanzla Kashir, a HUJI spokesman, issued a written statement that announced Kashmiri's death, and vowed to attack the US.

"On behalf of Harkat Jihad al-Islami 313 Brigade we confirm the fact that our leader and Commander-in-chief Mohammad Ilyas Kashmiri, along with other companions, have been martyred in an American drone attack at 11:15 pm on June 3, 2011 and Insha Allah (God willing) the present pharaoh America will see our full revenge very soon. Our only target is America," Kashir said, according to a translation of the statement by the SITE Intelligence Group.

The statement was then posted on the Shamukh al Islam forum, a website frequented by jihadists close to al Qaeda, along with an image purported to be that of Kashmiri's face after his death.

But it has been discovered that the photograph, said to depict the slain Kashmiri, is in fact that of Abu Dera Ismael Khan, a Lashkar-e-Taiba fighter who was one of the members of the suicide assault team that attacked Mumbai, India, in November 2008. Also, the original statement released by HUJI contained misspellings of the terror group's name, Arif Rafiq, the Editor of The Pakistan Policy Blog, told The Long War Journal.

"Though [HUJI is] a Pakistani organization, the group's name is actually in Arabic," Rafiq said. "The group's name is Harkat-ul Jihad al-Islami. But the guy who wrote the letter [Abu Hanzla Kashir] misspelled the name in the two instances he used it," Rafiq said. "First, he wrote Harkat-e Jihad al-Islami (grammatically incorrect in both Arabic and Urdu); then, he wrote Harkat-e Jihad-e Islami (grammatically correct in Urdu, both not the official name)."

US intelligence officials contacted by The Long War Journal said they still could not confirm if Kashmiri was killed in the June 2 strike in South Waziristan. The US intelligence officials said that the discrepancies with the photo and the statement make it difficult to confirm if Kashmiri was actually killed or if he survived the strike.

"We can't go in there; we don't have DNA to test," one official said.

Another US intelligence official said that it is possible the reports of Kashmiri's death may be a part of a "denial and deception" campaign by al Qaeda and HUJI intended to through the US off the scent of Kashmiri. Al Qaeda, the Taliban, and allied terror groups have not used martyrdom statements to fake the death of senior leaders in the past, the intelligence official said. Several local Taliban leaders, including Mullah Nazir's spokesman, another HUJI leader named Qari Mohammad Idrees, and the Political Agent for South Waziristan all claimed Kashmiri was killed, as have unnamed Pakistani intelligence officials.

Kashmiri is one of the most hunted al Qaeda leaders in the Afghan-Pakistan border area. He leads al Qaeda military forces in the region, and is one of three members of al Qaeda's external operations council, which is assigned to directing attacks against the US and Western allies.

For more information on Ilyas Kashmiri and the initial report of his death, see LWJ report, Top al Qaeda leader Ilyas Kashmiri killed in US Predator strike.



Read more: Questions emerge over HUJI's statement on al Qaeda leader Ilyas Kashmiri's death - The Long War Journal