New Delhi/Sindh (Pakistan): Lashkar-e-Taiba terrorist Abu Saifullah Khalid, the chief conspirator behind the 2006 attack on the RSS headquarters in Nagpur, was gunned down by unidentified assailants in Sindh province of Pakistan on Sunday.
According to Indian intelligence sources, Khalid — also known by multiple aliases including Razaullah Nizamani Khalid, Vinode Kumar, and Mohammed Salim — was a top Lashkar operative who had led the outfit’s operations in Nepal during the early 2000s. He was linked to several major terror attacks in India.
Officials confirmed that Khalid was fatally shot near Badni crossing in Sindh. Though Pakistani media outlets attributed the killing to personal enmity, Indian officials believe it could be linked to deeper factional or operational rivalries within the terror network.
A close aide of Lashkar commander Abu Anas, Khalid played a key role in planning the RSS HQ attack, where all three attackers were neutralized by Indian forces. He also orchestrated the 2005 Indian Institute of Science (IISc) attack in Bengaluru that killed IIT professor Munish Chandra Puri, and the 2008 CRPF camp attack in Rampur, which left eight dead, including seven security personnel.
Khalid was reportedly taken to a local hospital after the shooting, where he was declared dead. Investigations into the motive and identity of the attackers are ongoing.
