Ilyas Kashmiri: Life of a man who could have been No 1

Ironical as it may sound but Mohammed Ilyas Kashmiri, who wanted to target Lockheed Martin CEO for manufacturing the deadly drones that inflicted a huge toll on militants hiding in Pakistan’s restive northwest, was killed by one of the same unmanned flying machines.

Born on January 2, 1964 at Kotli in Pakistan-occupied-Kashmir, Kashmiri left his studies at Allama Iqbal Open University in Islamabad, where he was a first-year mass-communications student, and started indulging in terror activities to fight the Soviets in Afghanistan during which he lost an eye and a finger.

Initially beginning his terror career with Lashkar-e-Taiba, Kashmiri, on whom US announced five million dollars as reward, later formed his own Harkat-e-Jehadi Islami (HuJI) and indulged in terror activities aimed against India.

Wanted by India for killing of a police officer in Ghaziabad in 1994, Kashmiri and his three other associates had also managed to kidnap some foreigners in Delhi. However, the kidnapping drama could not last long and the foreigners were rescued but he managed to give a slip to the raiding sleuths after killing a station house officer in Ghaziabad.

During this incident, Omar Sheikh was arrested after he was injured in the gun fight. He was later released in exchange for passengers aboard the hijacked IC-814 at Kandahar in 1999.

Kashmiri’s notoriety increased in February 2000 after he led a gruesome attack on an Indian military post in which he beheaded an Indian soldier. Pictures of Kashmiri holding the head circulated through the press, and it was reported that he received a personal reward after presenting the head to General Pervez Musharraf.

India had secured an Interpol Red Corner notice against Kashmiri in October 2010. His role in the 26/11 came to light only after the arrest of Pakistani-American Lashkar terrorist David Headley who told investigators that Kashmiri was present at the control room in Karachi when the 10 terrorists were killing people mercilessly in Mumbai on November 26.

Following the Mumbai attacks, Kashmiri also wanted Headley to return to India to conduct surveillance on Israeli targets in response to events in Gaza in 2009. Way back in September 2009, he was reportedly killed in an attack by a US spy plane but re-emerged a month later to give an interview to Syed Saleem Shahzad, the journalist who was recently abducted and murdered.