Lashkar activist's killing in Karachi keeps ISI guessing in Pakistan
Rahman, a prominent cleric associated with Lashkar-e-Taiba, was gunned down while on his routine evening walk. As per a TOI report, the unidentified assailants, riding motorcycles, unleashed a barrage of bullets upon their target, leaving the Pakistan's ISI puzzled.
While such incidents involving religious leaders in Pakistan are not uncommon, this killing has raised eyebrows for several reasons.
Ziaur Rahman's affiliation with Lashkar-e-Taiba, a militant organization, adds a complex dimension to his murder. His demise bears an eerie resemblance to the assassination of another Lashkar operative, Paramjit Singh Panjwar, the chief of Khalistan Commando Force, who met a similar fate during his morning stroll near his Lahore residence in May.
Panjwar, a wanted figure in India for his involvement in terrorism, was also killed by unidentified gunmen.
The striking similarity between these two killings has prompted Pakistan's intelligence agency, the ISI, often accused of orchestrating terror activities against India, to take precautionary measures. Sources closely monitoring these developments suggest that the ISI has relocated nearly a dozen of its «assets» to «safe houses.» This heightened alert comes in the wake of the recent killings of two other Lashkar operatives, Abu Qasim Kashmiri in Rawalkot and Qari Khurram Shehzad in Nazimabad, both in September.
Rahman's murder took place on September 12, and investigators recovered 11 bullet casings, some from 9mm caliber weapons, from the crime scene.
