Islamabad: Amir Hamza, a founding member of Pakistan-based terror group Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), has been shot by unknown gunmen in Lahore. He’s currently admitted to a hospital and said to be in a critical condition.
According to available information, unidentified attackers opened fire on him outside a news channel office in Lahore.
This is the second time in less than a year when Hamza came under attack. Unknown men shot the terrorist outside his residence in Lahore last year in May, after which they rushed him to a hospital. Later, the Pakistani authorities reportedly heightened his security, though they did not comment on the incident.
Who Is Amir Hamza
Born on May 10, 1959, in Gujranwala, Punjab province, Hamza is a veteran of the Afghan jihad. He co-founded LeT, a US-designated terror group, along with terrorist Hafiz Saeed between 1985 and 1986, and is linked to multiple terrorist activities, including in India, where he is believed to have helped plan the 2005 terror attack on the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) in Bengaluru, — one of the first major LeT strikes outside Kashmir.
Regarded as the second most important LeT leader after Saeed, Hamza has held several key positions within the terror group over the years and has been instrumental in shaping its propaganda wing and outreach campaigns. The United States Department of the Treasury lists him as a sanctioned terrorist.
In 2012, the US Treasury Department issued a statement saying that Hamza was part of LeT’s central advisory committee and played a key role in managing the group’s external relationships under the direct oversight of Saeed. As of 2010, Hamza also served in an LeT-affiliated charitable organisation and held a senior position in an LeT university trust overseen by Saeed.
Seen as a top LeT ideologue, the 66-year-old is known as a fiery speaker and a prolific writer and has also been actively involved in the dissemination of LeT’s propaganda material. He edited the group’s weekly newspaper and regularly contributed articles. He also wrote several books, including the 2022 publication of Qafila Da’wat aur Shahadat (Caravan of Proselytising and Martydom) and headed LeT’s “special campaigns” department, which coordinated specific outreach and mobilisation efforts.
In mid-2010, Hamza was among three senior LeT terrorists who negotiated for the release of detained members of the organisation.
However, in 2018, Hamza distanced himself from the parent organisation following global crackdowns on LeT’s financial fronts, such as Jamaat-ud-Dawah and the Falah-e-Insaniat Foundation. He then launched a splinter group named Jaish-e-Manqafa, which has reportedly been engaged in limited fundraising and propaganda operations, especially focused on Kashmir.
Despite the split, Hamza, nevertheless, remains designated as a global terrorist by the US Treasury, which considers him a key figure in LeT’s decades-long campaigns of recruitment, radicalisation, and fundraising.
