Ilyas Kashmiri was a major threat to India

Security experts in India have welcomed the news of deadly terrorist Ilyas Kashmiri’s killing in Pakistan, saying it will be beneficial to India because a major terror brain has been eliminated.

Former National Security Guards (NSG) chief TR Kakkar said Kashmiri was behind a number of major terror operations in India and his death would be a major blow to HuJI and Al Qaeda.
Kashmiri’s death, if true, is another instance of a dreaded terrorist being found on Pakistani soil, said former chief of the intelligence bureau (IB) Arun Bhagat.

“Now, Pakistan needs to take steps like identifying such people hiding in their nation and take further action to stop terror activities,” he said.

Former head of the counter terrorism division of the research and analysis wing (R&AW), B Raman said, “when Hillary Clinton visited Pakistan last year, she handed over a list of around 500 persons and Ilyas Kashmiri was one of the most wanted among them. If he has been killed, that means a major terror brain has been put to rest.” Raman added that Kashmiri had men working for him in large numbers and had designs which could cause heavy damage to India. His organisation HuJI specialises in training terrorists and harbours some of the most dangerous terrorists active in Jammu and Kashmir.

In the December 28, 2005, terror attack on the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) in Bangalore, in which a Delhi University maths professor was killed, Kashmiri’s militants were involved. It is believed that Kashmiri was personally present during this attack and later fled the country via Bangladesh. Kashmiri is also believed to be linked to the German Bakery bomb blast in Pune on February 13, 2010.