The Mastermind of Mayhem in Mumbai: A Profile of Lashkar-e-Taiba’s Zaki-ur Rahman Lakhvi
The Mastermind of Mayhem in Mumbai: A Profile of Lashkar-e-Taiba’s Zaki-ur Rahman Lakhvi
Outside the Indian subcontinent not much was known about the most prolific militant commander of Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), Zaki-ur Rahman Lakhvi, until the United States Treasury announced on May 27, 2008 that they had froze the assets of four of the top LeT leaders including Lakhvi. [1] Exactly six months later, Lakhvi’s name entered into terror infamy. With his jihadi network, he had masterminded the Mumbai attacks in November 2008, which sent ripples across the world.
Zaki-ur-Rahman’s involvement in the Mumbai attacks was confirmed by two sources, which the Pakistani authorities coerced into speaking. The U.S. born LeT operative David Coleman Headley has also identified Lakhvi as the leader of the military wing of LeT and mastermind behind the November 2008 attacks which killed more than 150 individuals. At his trial, the lone surviving terrorist, Ajmal Amir Kasab, told the Indian court about Zaki-ur-Rahman’s involvement. (India Today, July 20, 2009).
Pakistani officials ordered its security forces to move against Lashkar-e-Taiba’s hideouts in Muzaffarabad, Pakistan on December 7, 2008. During the raid they captured and arrested Lakhvi and LeT affiliates. However the Pakistani government refused to hand over Zaki-ur-Rahman to India for trial and jailed him as well as his affiliates in the high-security Adila jail, located in Rawalpindi for a Pakistan-based trial.
LeT, which was considered by the Pakistani establishment to be a defunct organization, is headed by Hafiz Saeed, who also leads LeT‘s charity wing Jamaat-ud-Dawa (JuD) with senior associates that include Abul Rahman Makki, Zaki-ur-Rahman Lakhvi, Yousuf Muzammil, Yaha Mujhaid and Zarar Shah.
In December 2008, the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) imposed sanctions on the Jamaat-ud-Dawa (JuD), the front organization of the already banned LeT, declaring it a terrorist outfit, and labeled Saeed and Lakhvi as terrorists. [2] On August 25, 2009, Interpol issued Red Corner Notices (RCN) against both Saeed and Lakhvi following the issuance of a non-bailable warrant by a Mumbai court seeking to prosecute the two terror leaders for their involvement in the Mumbai carnage. [3]
Jihad Universe
Zaki-ur-Rahman Lakhvi always stands out as a hardcore militant leader, in large part due to his immense battle experience, both in Afghanistan and the Kashmir theaters. Lakhvi, who was born in Rinala Khurd of Okara District of Pakistan’s Punjab province, received Islamic educations at Jamia Salfia Mamoon Kanjan and Jamia Muhammadia Gujranwala. [4] Initiated to the world of militancy at a very young age, he was linked to the Afghan Jihad against the Soviets in the mid 1980s, founded an informal group involving people with Ahle Hadith persuasion and closely associated himself with Pakistan’s intelligence agency – ISI.
Lashkar-e-Taiba came into existence in 1990 in the Kunar province of Afghanistan, with Zaki-ur-Rahman Lakhvi as a lead founding member along with Hafiz Saeed. Prior to merging their respective organizations to spearhead Dawa and Jihad in the region, Lakhvi brought Hafiz Saeed into the realm of Afghan Jihad. Following the Soviet force withdrawal from Afghanistan, Zaki-ur-Rehman and Hafiz Saeed’s attention was shifted to Kashmir at the behest of ISI as part of the latter’s proxy war with India.
Almost immediately a number of LeT recruitment and training camps materialized in Pakistan’s administered Kashmir (PAK) region. Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi’s battle experience and clout within the LeT’s leadership bought him the coveted position of operational chief in Kashmir.
Fondly known as chachaji (uncle) by his fellow LeT operatives, Zaki-ur-Rehman has multiple pseudonyms, including Abu Waheed and Irshad Ahmad. Lakhvi’s entire family seems dedicated to Lashkar-e-Taiba’s jihadi cause while he has remained a key leader as LeT’s operational commander since LeT’s inception. A further enhancement of his status within the jihadi circle in Pakistan came with his close association with Abdur Rahman Sareehi, the Saudi national with ties to Osama bin Laden. It was Sareehi who helped Lakhvi and Saeed establish training camps in Afghanistan’s Kunar and Paktia provinces. Sareehi also donated millions of rupees to build LeT/JuD’s headquarters at Muridke (Asia Times, December 18, 2008).
Unlike Hafiz Saeed, who has been largely regulated to the roles of spiritual head, ideologue and motivator of LeT/JuD, Zaki-ur-Rehman is a true militant commander, well versed in the tactical and strategic details of terror targets and attacks. Known for his passion and commitment to jihad, he sent two of his young sons to fight the Indian army in Kashmir. Both died in separate encounters in 2004 and 2007 in the Bandipora jungles (Mumbai Mirror, February 14, 2009). His other two sons are by his side along with one of his wives who has been charged with the welfare work of the LeT/JuD network.
Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi’s ambitious nature helped to develop both operational and personal differences with LeT/JuD chief Hafiz Saeed and was instrumental in the organizational split in 2004. The reports of differences between Lakhvi and Saeed escalated when Saeed married a young widow whose husband had died fighting in Kashmir and promoted his brother-in-law, Abdul Rahman Makki, as the foreign affairs head of JuD and as his second-in-command, superseding Zaki-ur-Rehman.
Lakhvi set up a breakaway faction of LeT, known as Khair-un Naas (KuN or People’s Welfare), with another senior leader, Zafar Iqbal. KuN’s disgruntled followers vowed to kill Hafiz Saeed for financial irregularities, corruption and nepotism. KuN soon took over control of the JuD headquarters in Muridke (known as ‘Markaz-e-Taiba’) and Ad-Dawa model schools, madarsas, hospitals as well as other assets (Herald, September, 2004) Amidst all of this intra-organizational fighting, efforts were made by the ISI to bring the factions to a truce.
Kashmir and Beyond
Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi, one of the most wanted terrorists in India, has spearheaded several of LeT’s signature Fidayeen attacks in Jammu and Kashmir and elsewhere in India. At least two major attacks against India’s heartland, in particular Mumbai attacks, can be linked to him. According to the confessional statement of a LeT operative arrested in connection with the February 2008 Rampur Army camp attack, he also masterminded the July 11, 2006, commuter train bombings in Mumbai. The most deadly of them all was the November 26, 2008 Mumbai terror attacks which was also planned by him.
However, Zaki-ur-Rahman’s activities were known to Indian intelligence and police as far back as 1994. In 1998, he recruited Abdul Karim Tunda for subversive activities inside India and planned several bomb attacks in the capital of Delhi. He himself declared during the annual congregation (Ijtema) of Markaz Ad-dawa Wal Irshad (MDI- the parent organization of LeT/JuD), that LeT’s next target would be New Delhi. According to Lakhvi at least 9 Fidayeen Missions “have been conducted against the Indian army in the different parts of the Kashmir valley through November 1999.” [5] Earlier that year, in April 1999, he revealed that the Pakistan army and LeT’ had a joint strategy during the Kargil war. During the November congregation, he claimed that Lashkar-e-Taiba “can open another Kargil whenever and wherever they required.” [6] He also hinted at the expanding networks of LeT inside India at that time.
Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi was instrumental in bringing the deadly Lashkar unit of Fidayeen (suicide squad) into Kashmir and dividing them into two major strike forces against Indian security forces and civilians. Not much information is known about the two units aside from their names: Jaan-e-Fidayeen and Ibn-e-Tayamiah. Lakhvi was believed to have planned and executed most of the attacks against Indian security forces in Kashmir thereafter. According to arrested Lashkar operatives, Zaki-ur-Rehman usually oversees military training programs known as Daura-e-Aam (three week combat training) and Daura-e-Khas (three month specialized combat training).
If Indian army sources are to be believed, Lashkar-e-Taiba has been raising a group of 21 female terrorists at its training camps in Pakistan-Administered Kashmir for carrying out sabotage activities inside India. This newly floated group, known as Dukhtareen-e-Taiba, was the brainchild of Lakhvi (NDTV/Press Trust of India, January 04). Earlier it was reported that a jihadi known as Hyder Bhai (a.k.a Abu Bilal; a.k.a Salahudin) had been given charge of the LeT’s Kashmir operations in the absence of Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi. [7]
Although there were reports that LeT has replaced him as supreme commander in charge of Kashmir, Western and Indian intelligence sources confirmed that he still holds the rein from his prison cell. (Rediff.com, October 25). Lakhvi has been clandestinely communicating from Rawalpindi’s high-security Adiala Jail using mobile phones. A request from the U.S. government to take away his mobile phone was rejected by Pakistan Army chief Gen Kayani. [8]
Conclusion
India’s National Investigation Agency (NIA)’s charge sheet filed on December 24th in a Delhi court highlighted the roles of Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi and Hafiz Saeed alongside two serving Pakistani Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) officers, identified as Major Iqbal and Major Sameer Ali, in a larger conspiracy to organize spectacular terrorist attacks on places of iconic importance in India. Meanwhile, the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) of Pakistan indicated that there was enough evidence to prosecute all seven of those accused of plotting the Mumbai attacks who are currently in custody. Among them is Zaki-ur-Rahman Lakhvi, who has been named as the mastermind of the Mumbai terror attack; Hammad Amin Sadiq, who provided funds and safe houses for the terrorists; Abu-al-Qama, who trained Kasab and the nine others for the attacks; and Zarar Shah, who has been named as LeT’s facilitator. The other three people are Shahid Jamil Riaz, Jami Ahamd and Muhammad Younas Anjum, who all had roles in orchestrating the attacks. Although the Pakistani government has admitted that Lakhvi led the group responsible for the terrorist assault in November 2008, it has refused to part with voice recordings of Lakhvi and others giving instructions to the ten terrorists during the attack on November 26, 2008. Little progress has been made in the trial of Mumbai attackers even after three years has passed. This lack of progress continues to be an irritant in Indo-Pakistani bilateral relations.
Notes
1. Treasury Targets LET Leadership, May 27, 2008, https://www.treasury.gov/press-center/press-releases/Pages/hp996.aspx.
2. UN Security Council (SC/9527), Al-Qaida and Taliban sanctions committee adds names of four Individuals to consolidated list, amends entries of three entities, December 10, 2008.
3. Interpol issues Red Corner notice against Saeed, Lakhvi, The Hindu, August 26, 2009.5. YouTube Clip, December 25, 2009, Available at:
www.youtube.com/watch?gl=FR&v=_vlm-m5qLUc.
4. Basic details of Lakhvi such as address, photograph, his Pakistani national identification number and date of birth can be found in India’s Central Bureau of Investigation portal and Interpol’s Red corner notice, Available at:
https://cbi.nic.in/rnotice/A-2413-8-2009.html. Also See, “Eleven Years of Lashker-e-Taiba” April 22, 2001. The original document is archived and available at www.nefafoundation.org.
5. Zaki-ur Rahman Lakhvi, “Allah’s Army: Mujahideen-e-Lashkar-e-Taiba,( Ijtema Congregation: November 1999),” Courtesy: WebArchives, Available at: https://www.dawacenter.com/ijtimah/zaki-e.html.
6. See, B Raman, “KARGIL: some dramatis personae,” https://www.southasiaanalysis.org/%5Cpapers%5Cpaper57.html
7. Anil Raina, “Lashkar replaces Lakhvi”, Mumbai Mirror (Pune), May 13, 2009.
8. Sebastian Rotella, “The American Behind India’s 9/11—And How U.S. Botched Chances to Stop Him,” ProPublica, Nov. 22, 2011.
