In an interview with the slain Pakistani journalist, Syed Saleem Shahzad, Ilyas Kashmiri had said, “The defeat of American global hegemony is a must if I want the liberation of my homeland Kashmir, and therefore it provided the reasoning for my presence in this war theater.” He declared that the Mumbai attacks would be overtaken by attacks that would be greater in scope and destruction.
Why did he join al-Qaida? “We were both victims of the same tyrant. Today, the entire Muslim world is sick of Americans and that’s why they are agreeing with Sheikh Osama. If all of the Muslim world is asked to elect their leader, their choice would be either [Taliban leader] Mullah Omar or Sheikh Osama,” Ilyas told Shahzad.
Shahzad was murdered for exposing that the same al-Qaida under Ilyas Kashmiri had carried out the attack on the Mehran naval base on May 22 in retaliation against the Pakistan Navy trying to weed out Qaida elements who had infiltrated them. Two weeks later, Kashmiri was killed by a drone attack. Kashmiri’s death is a huge setback to al-Qaida.
Where did the intelligence come from? US drones have been searching for Kashmiri for years in both North and South Waziristan. Over the years, Washington had pressed Pakistan to “do more” in these areas, specially because the Pak army operations had left Kashmiri’s deadly Brigade 313 intact even after their operations in these areas.
Kashmiri’s role in the Mehran attack may have been obscured by Pakistan’s cry of “foreign hand” but news reports on Kashmiri’s involvement busted that myth. Kashmiri had become far more dangerous for Pakistan than anybody else, specially when it was revealed that he may have teamed up with Said-al-Adel, the al-Qaida global head post-Osama. Kashmiri may have been a prized asset for the Pakistani authorities but after Mehran, he became, literally, too hot to handle.
Describing Kashmiri, Bruce Riedel of Brookings Institution said, “He is deeply entrenched in the Pakistani jihadist subculture… Since 2002 al-Qaida has focused on Pakistan both by necessity as its safe haven and by choice, because of Pakistan’s importance. It has built alliances with the Pakistan Taliban and groups like Lashkar-e-Taiba.”
Kashmiri’s death will bring huge satisfaction to US and India. For the US, his death gives them a respite from the relentless attacks on the NATO and ISAF in Afghanistan, which is necessary for Barack Obama as he heads towards a drawdown of troops. Kashmiri has been credited with organizing an attack against Afghan security installations in Khost in 2009.
For India, Kashmiri was proving to be a deadlier foe than even Hafiz Saeed of Lashkar-e-Taiba. One of the masterminds of Mumbai, Kashmiri’s promise for more such attacks had put the Indian establishment on guard. His death will put a check on these ambitions, said sources. But that does not diminish the terror threat against India originating in Pakistan, but certainly it will take the jihadis a little longer to regroup, because it is not every day that they come across leaders of the caliber of Ilyas Kashmiri.
Kashmiri’s death has a larger ramification: thanks to him, Sirajuddin Haqqani and other related terror leaders, there are now no distinctions between the good and bad terrorists. For instance, Kashmiri was killed in an area known to be under the sway of Mullah Nazir, an acknowledged “good” Taliban for the Pakistanis. Yet, this same Nazir, a few weeks ago declared himself to be al-Qaida and a follower of bin Laden.
Over the past few years, the inter-relationships between these groups have only increased. They all owed their allegiance to Mullah Omar and Osama bin Laden. For Pakistan, the support they gave to anti-India and anti-Afghanistan terror groups is coming back to bite them like never before.