Amir Hamza, a founding member of Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), was shot by unidentified assailants outside a news channel office in Lahore and is reported to be in critical condition, according to available accounts. The attack, if confirmed, removes from public view a veteran ideologue and organiser whose long history with LeT dates back to the mid-1980s and whose role has been central to the group’s recruitment, propaganda and fundraising activities.
Reports say Hamza was recruited by Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi in 1985 while still a madrassa student and later introduced to Hafiz Saeed, a chain of meetings that helped establish the group’s first institutional base, the Markaz Da’wa-al-Irshad (MDI). As head of MDI’s publications in his twenties, Hamza edited magazines such as Mujallah Ad-Dawah and Al Jarar; the piece credits their incendiary rhetoric with swelling LeT’s ranks to more than 10,000 within three years. He is quoted in the source declaring, “When their combined fist of self-defence lands on the terrorists, we could see Modi falling flat on his face,” a line used to illustrate his strident anti-India and anti-US stance.
Beyond rhetoric, the article records Hamza’s international ties: travel to the Soviet Union to link with Salafist groups, to Iran to promote Sunni resistance to Shia influence, and deep involvement in the Afghan jihad that connected him with original Taliban and mujahideen networks. He is also described as a significant fundraiser and a keeper of LeT’s historical memory — a figure whose removal would be a blow to the group’s leadership and institutional continuity.
The author argues that while Hamza’s loss would be damaging, LeT is unlikely to collapse; internal rivalries and leadership churn could instead produce younger, possibly more radical successors. The piece recounts past fissures within LeT — including reported estrangement between Hafiz Saeed and operational chiefs after personal and operational disputes — and notes that after the 2008 Mumbai attacks several leaders were publicly punished while others, the article claims, resurfaced under new fronts such as Jaish-e-Manqafa to continue fundraising.
On the security front, the article warns of a persistent high threat to India, citing recent interdictions of terror modules in Amritsar and Kashmir, the arrest of an operative at the Bangladesh border, intercepted drones in Tarn Taran, and alleged plots against major temples in New Delhi. It links these developments to a fraught regional context in which Pakistan’s civil-military establishment, regional diplomacy and militant networks are intertwined, and suggests that leadership shifts within Pakistan — including moves by figures like Field Marshal Asim Munir — could further complicate the threat landscape. (Tara Kartha is a former Director, National Security Council Secretariat). These are the personal opinions of the author.
Original Source: https://www.ndtv.com/opinion/pakistan-amir-hamza-attack-was-a-symptom-a-deadlier-storm-is-brewing-within-lashkar-11370180#publisher=newsstand
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Publish Date: 2026-04-17 12:15:00
