The incident comes at a time of seen churn inside Lashkar’s higher echelons, fuelling hypothesis over attainable inside strife or focused eliminations. Hamza, a long-time affiliate of Hafiz Saeed and Abdul Rehman Makki, was a core member of Lashkar’s central committee and served because the group’s chief propagandist and head of its publications wing.
In accordance with the TOI report, pro-Lashkar Telegram channels, the response to Hamza’s situation was swift and anxious. Messages urged followers to stay calm and described the episode as an “accident,” however the tone advised unease inside the ranks.
Hamza, declared a global terrorist by the USA in 2012, was referred to as the ideological engine behind Lashkar’s narrative operations.
A former Afghan jihadi, he progressively shifted from discipline operations to overseeing Lashkar’s propaganda, authoring books like Qafila Da’wat aur Shahadat (Caravan of Proselytising and Martyrdom) and Shahrah-e-Bahisht (The Street to Paradise). He additionally served because the editor of Lashkar’s weekly newspaper and contributed extensively to its radical literature.
In accordance with US Treasury Division data, Hamza held a number of senior roles in LeT’s outreach and fundraising arms and was one in every of three designated negotiators tasked with securing the discharge of detained Lashkar operatives, famous the report. He additionally briefly led a entrance organisation — Jaish-e-Manqafa — floated by Hafiz Saeed in 2018 to avoid Pakistan’s momentary bans on Lashkar and Jamaat-ud-Dawah.Furthermore, previous to being moved to steer the propaganda entrance of the LeT, Hamza had resided in India within the early 200s as an energetic terrorist. Whereas the group publicly shifted Hamza into its ideological wing years in the past, his deep connections with LeT’s previous guard and his position in negotiating factional balances have stored him a strong behind-the-scenes determine.
His abrupt medical emergency — coupled with the hush surrounding it — has solely intensified the sense of instability within the outfit.
A grim backdrop: Saifullah’s assassination
Hamza’s hospitalisation comes simply three days after the killing of Abu Saifullah, a high-ranking Lashkar commander and key recruiter, in Pakistan’s Sindh province.
Saifullah was gunned down by unidentified assailants early on Sunday, in what intelligence analysts view as a serious disruption to LeT’s operational community.
He had been overseeing Lashkar’s covert infrastructure in Nepal and was linked to a number of assaults in India, together with the 2005 IISc Bengaluru taking pictures, the 2006 Nagpur RSS headquarters plot, and the 2008 CRPF camp assault in Rampur. Notably, he and Hamza have been each believed to have coordinated the IISc assault collectively.
An indicator of Saifullah’s ways was the usage of terrorists wearing Indian Military or police uniforms — a chilling signature seen throughout a number of assaults. His dying, unclaimed by any group, has prompted hypothesis over inside purges or externally pushed eliminations geared toward dismantling Lashkar’s management.
Now, with Hamza in crucial situation and Saifullah eradicated, two of Lashkar’s most entrenched operatives have been neutralised within the span of some days, a improvement that would mark a big turning level within the terror group’s future course — or disintegration.
