The alleged mastermind of the Pahalgam terrorist attack on April 22, Lashkar-e-Taiba (LET) commander Saifullah Kasuri again came out in public on Wednesday and shared the stage with Pakistani political leaders and other desired terrorists at a political rally. It also included the son of Lashkar-e-Taiba founder Hafiz Saeed and the terrorist Talha Saeed announced by India.
In this rally organized by the Pakistan Markzi Muslim League (PMML) to celebrate Yom-e-Takbir in the annual memory of Pakistan’s nuclear tests, inflammatory speeches and anti-India slogans were raised.
Kasuri said at a rally held in Kasur, Punjab province, “I was told the mastermind of Pahalgam terrorist attack, now my name is famous all over the world.”
It is believed that he coordinated the cruel attack on Pahalgam’s beautiful Basaron grassland, where 26 people were shot dead by militants of The Resistance Front, a representative of Lashkar-e-Taiba in Pakistan, mostly Hindu men.
Addressing the crowd, Kasuri-also known as Khalid-announced a plan to build a center, road and hospital in the name of “Mudassir Shaheed” in Allahabad.
According to intelligence sources, Mudassir Ahmad was one of the several high-profile terrorist operatives killed in India’s counter-operation vermilion attacks after the massacre.
At the rally, Talha Saeed, who was ranked 32nd in the list of India’s most wanted terrorists, gave a fierce speech full of jihadi slogans and “Nara-e-Takbir”.
Saeed, who failed for Parliament from the NA-122 seat of Lahore in the 2024 general elections of Pakistan, continued his public association with PMML, which is considered to be a political front of Lashkar-e-Taiba, a widely banned Lashkar-e-Taiba.
In recent weeks, PMML has intensified anti -India rhetoric, and has demanded the release of Hafiz Saeed by protesting in major Pakistani cities – Lahore, Karachi, Islamabad, Faisalabad and others and accused India of “water aggression” to suspend the Indus Water Treaty.
While Lashkar-e-Taiba is banned internationally and within Pakistan, groups like PMML have enabled its leadership to maintain political and ideological relevance.
Hafiz Saeed, a terrorist nominated by the United Nations, the mastermind of the 2008 Mumbai attacks, is still seen as an ideological power behind the activities of PMML.
India has strongly condemned Pakistan to bring terrorism into the mainstream, especially in view of Operation Sindoor, which was abolished many high-value targets associated with Lashkar-e-Taiba, including Joseph Azhar, Abdul Malik Rauf and Mudassir Ahmed-which were included in the IC-814 kidnapping and Pulwama bomb.
