Hafiz Saeed's nephew Abu Qatal; mastermind of Rajouri attack, gunned down in Pakistan: Report

Faisal Nadeem, alias Abu Qatal, a key Lashkar-e-Taiba operative and one of its most wanted terrorists, was killed in Pakistan on Saturday night, according to several media reports.

According to the reports, unidentified gunmen opened fire at a vehicle in which Faisal Nadeem was traveling. The attack took place at Mangla bypass in the Jhelum district of Pakistan's Punjab.

Qatal, a close associate of 26/11 Mumbai attack mastermind Hafiz Saeed, along with two other Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) handlers, was charge-sheeted by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) in connection with the January 2023 Rajouri attacks.

The charge-sheet was part of the agency’s efforts to dismantle the terrorist network in Jammu and Kashmir.

The case, registered as RC-01 & 02/2023/NIA/JMU, pertained to the terror attack on civilians in Dhangri, Rajouri, on January 1, 2023, followed by an IED blast the next day.Seven people, reportedly, including two children, had been killed, and several others had been seriously injured.

The NIA last year filed a chargesheet, naming Abu Qatal, Sajid Jutt and Mohd Qasim as the Pakistan-based handlers who guided the terrorists in carrying out the attacks. Qatal was operating in Kashmir in 2000 and was involved in multiple attacks before he shifted back to Pakistan-Occupied Kashmir and had been handling Lashkar's terror launchpads and pushing terrorists into Jammu and Kashmir.