Ilyas Kashmiri (militant)
Encyclopedia
Ilyas Kashmiri, also referred to as Maulana Ilyas Kashmiri and Muhammad Ilyas Kashmiri (10 February 1964 – 3 June 2011), was a senior al-Qaeda
Al-Qaeda
Al-Qaeda is a global broad-based militant Islamist terrorist organization founded by Osama bin Laden sometime between August 1988 and late 1989. It operates as a network comprising both a multinational, stateless army and a radical Sunni Muslim movement calling for global Jihad...

 member and leader of the Harkat-ul-Jihad al-Islami (HUJI) He was also connected with the Soviet-Afghan war, the Kashmir conflict
Kashmir conflict
The Kashmir conflict is a territorial dispute between India and Pakistan over the Kashmir region, the northwesternmost region of South Asia....

 and attacks against India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...

, Pakistan
Pakistan
Pakistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan is a sovereign state in South Asia. It has a coastline along the Arabian Sea and the Gulf of Oman in the south and is bordered by Afghanistan and Iran in the west, India in the east and China in the far northeast. In the north, Tajikistan...

 and the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

. In August 2010, the US and the United Nations
United Nations
The United Nations is an international organization whose stated aims are facilitating cooperation in international law, international security, economic development, social progress, human rights, and achievement of world peace...

 designated him a terrorist. NBC News reported that United States officials had mentioned him as a possible successor to Osama bin Laden
Osama bin Laden
Osama bin Mohammed bin Awad bin Laden was the founder of the militant Islamist organization Al-Qaeda, the jihadist organization responsible for the September 11 attacks on the United States and numerous other mass-casualty attacks against civilian and military targets...

 as head of al-Qaeda.

Military career and militant activities

Kashmiri hailed from the Mirpur District
Mirpur District
Mirpur District is a district in the disputed and divided state of [Jammu and Kashmir]. The district is named after the main city, Mirpur. The District of Mirpur has a population of 371,000 and covers an area of . The district is mainly mountainous with some plains...

 of Azad Kashmir
Azad Kashmir
Azad Jammu and Kashmir or Azad Kashmir for short, is the southernmost political entity within the Pakistani-administered part of the former princely state of Jammu and Kashmir...

 in Pakistan-administered Kashmir
Pakistan-administered Kashmir
Azad Kashmir borders the Pakistani provinces of Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa to the west, the Wakhan Corridor of Afghanistan to the north west, the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region of People's Republic of China to the north and the Indian-administered state of Jammu and Kashmir, to the east.A...

. According to several sources, he became a member of the elite Pakistani Special Service Group,
although in an interview he denied this. Kashmiri also spent a year studying communications at the Allama Iqbal Open University
Allama Iqbal Open University
Allama Iqbal Open University , founded in 1974, is a university in Islamabad, Pakistan. It is one of the world's largest universities by enrollment, with 1,121,038 students in the year 2010 whereas Course Enrollment of these students are 3,305,948 -History:Allama Iqbal Open University was...

.

He was an active participant in the 1980s Soviet-Afghan War, training the Afghan mujahideen in mine warfare in Miranshah
Miranshah
Miranshah is the capital or headquarters of North Waziristan in Pakistan. It is the site of a town, which has s small airfield that was built by the British for World War II. The area in which Miranshah sits is extremely dangerous mainly due to Taliban activities and U.S. Drone...

 on behalf of Pakistan. During the fighting he lost an eye and an index finger. He continued his militant activities in Kashmir after the war as a member of Harkat-ul-Jihad-al-Islami
Harkat-ul-Jihad-al-Islami
Harkat-ul-Jihad-al-Islami is an Islamic fundamentalist organization most active in South Asian countries of Pakistan, Bangladesh and India since the early 1990s. It was banned in Bangladesh in 2005. The operational commander of HuJI, Ilyas Kashmiri, was reportedly killed in a U.S. Predator drone...

 (HuJI), though disagreements with leader Qari Saifullah Akhtar
Qari Saifullah Akhtar
Qari Saifullah Akhtar is an alleged member of Al-Qaeda currently in Pakistani custody. Akhtar, who is listed as a graduate of the Banuri mosque in Karachi, previously was the leader of Harkat-ul-Jihad-al-Islami , a jihadi organization...

 several years after initially joining in 1991 led Kashmiri to establish his own new unit within HuJI known as the 313 Brigade.

During the mid-1990s, Kashmiri and Nasrullah Mansoor Langrial were near Poonch
Poonch
Poonch is a town and a municipal committee in Poonch District in the Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir. Based on the Mahābhārata evidence, and the evidence from 7th Chinese traveler Xuanzang, the districts of Poonch along with Rajauri and Abhisara had been under the sway of the Republican Kambojas...

 when they were seized by the Indian Army
Indian Army
The Indian Army is the land based branch and the largest component of the Indian Armed Forces. With about 1,100,000 soldiers in active service and about 1,150,000 reserve troops, the Indian Army is the world's largest standing volunteer army...

 and sent to prison, where he would spend the next two years before escaping and returning to Pakistan. Upon his return Kashmiri continued to conduct operations against India, once reportedly being rewarded personally with INR
INR
- Codes :INR is:* the ISO 4217 currency code of the Indian rupee * the Federal Aviation Administration location identifier of the McKinley National Park Airport, McKinley Park, Alaska, United States...

 1,00,000 (about US$
United States dollar
The United States dollar , also referred to as the American dollar, is the official currency of the United States of America. It is divided into 100 smaller units called cents or pennies....

1,164.24) by then Army Chief General Pervez Musharraf
Pervez Musharraf
Pervez Musharraf , is a retired four-star general who served as the 13th Chief of Army Staff and tenth President of Pakistan as well as tenth Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee. Musharraf headed and led an administrative military government from October 1999 till August 2007. He ruled...

 for presenting the decapitated head of an Indian army soldier to him. Pictures of Kashmiri with the head of the soldier in his hands were published in some Pakistani newspapers.

Post-Kashmir activities

Kashmiri rejected orders to serve under Maulana Masood Azhar
Maulana Masood Azhar
Maulana Masood Azhar is a Pakistani mujaheddin leader and the founder of the militant group Jaish-e-Mohammed, based mainly in the Pakistan-administered portion of the state of Kashmir....

 in the newly founded mujahideen
Mujahideen
Mujahideen are Muslims who struggle in the path of God. The word is from the same Arabic triliteral as jihad .Mujahideen is also transliterated from Arabic as mujahedin, mujahedeen, mudžahedin, mudžahidin, mujahidīn, mujaheddīn and more.-Origin of the concept:The beginnings of Jihad are traced...

 organization Jaish-e-Mohammed
Jaish-e-Mohammed
Jaish-e-Mohammed is a Pakistani-based, militant Islamic group established by Maulana Masood Azhar in March 2000...

 and was once even targeted by the group. Falling out of favor with the Pakistani military, he was even taken into custody and tortured in late 2003 in the wake of an attempt to assassinate President Musharraf. From his release in February 2004 until the 2007 Siege of Lal Masjid
Siege of Lal Masjid
The siege of Lal Masjid was a confrontation in July 2007 between Islamic fundamentalist militants and the Government of Pakistan led by General Pervez Musharraf and Shaukat Aziz Administration, then Prime minister of Pakistan...

 he apparently did little, but later returned to the 313 Brigade in the terrorist organization Harkat-ul-Jihad-al-Islami
Harkat-ul-Jihad-al-Islami
Harkat-ul-Jihad-al-Islami is an Islamic fundamentalist organization most active in South Asian countries of Pakistan, Bangladesh and India since the early 1990s. It was banned in Bangladesh in 2005. The operational commander of HuJI, Ilyas Kashmiri, was reportedly killed in a U.S. Predator drone...

 (HUJI), which is closely tied to Al-Qaeda
Al-Qaeda
Al-Qaeda is a global broad-based militant Islamist terrorist organization founded by Osama bin Laden sometime between August 1988 and late 1989. It operates as a network comprising both a multinational, stateless army and a radical Sunni Muslim movement calling for global Jihad...

. Kashmiri rebuilt its strength while collaborating with the Taliban. This was part of a broader movement of Kashmir militants moving to Waziristan
Waziristan
Waziristan is a mountainous region near the Northwest of Pakistan, bordering Afghanistan and covering some 11,585 km² . The area is entirely populated by ethnic Pashtuns . The language spoken in the valley is Pashto/Pakhto...

, and Kashmiri reportedly moved personnel from his Kotli (Kashmir) training camp to a new one in Razmak
Razmak
Razmak is one of the three sub-divisions of North Waziristan Agency in Pakistan, the other two being Miranshah and Mirali. Inhabitants are Uthmanzai Wazirs. Razmak is further sub-divided in three Tehsils. Tehsil being the lowest administrative unit in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas of...

 (North Waziristan
North Waziristan
North Waziristan is the northern part of Waziristan, a mountainous region of northwest Pakistan, bordering Afghanistan and covering . Waziristan comprises the area west and south-west of Peshawar between the Tochi river to the north and the Gomal river to the south, forming part of Pakistan's...

). A U.S. indictment of Kashmiri states that he "was in regular contact with al Qaeda [their italics] and in particular with Mustafa Abu al Yazid..."

He has been associated with a number of attacks, including the 2008 Mumbai attacks
2008 Mumbai attacks
The 2008 Mumbai attacks were more than 10 coordinated shooting and bombing attacks across Mumbai, India's largest city, by Islamist attackers who came from Pakistan...

 and the killing of Ameer Faisal Alavi. Syed Saleem Shahzad
Syed Saleem Shahzad
Syed Saleem Shahzad was a Pakistani investigative journalist who wrote widely for leading European and Asian media. He served as the Pakistan Bureau Chief of Asia Times Online and Italian news agency Adnkronos . He was found dead in a canal in North-east Pakistan, showing signs of torture, two...

 wrote that Kashmiri proposed the Mumbai attacks to Al Queda leaders as a way to create a war that would bring operations against Al Queda to a halt. The plan was approved and given to former LeT commander Major Haroon Ashik .

According to Asia Times Online
Asia Times Online
Asia Times Online is a bilingual English‒Chinese, Internet-based newspaper covering geopolitics, politics, economics and business "from an Asian perspective"...

, Kashmiri was behind a 2008 plan to assassinate Chief of Army Staff General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani
Ashfaq Parvez Kayani
General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, NI, HI is a four-star general in the Pakistan Army, and the current Chief of Army Staff of the Pakistan Army. He replaced General Pervez Musharraf as the Chief of Army Staff and the commandant of the army on November 29, 2007...

 as he stepped out of his car during daily visits to a gym; however, the al-Qaeda
Al-Qaeda
Al-Qaeda is a global broad-based militant Islamist terrorist organization founded by Osama bin Laden sometime between August 1988 and late 1989. It operates as a network comprising both a multinational, stateless army and a radical Sunni Muslim movement calling for global Jihad...

 leadership rejected the plan on strategic grounds. According to The News International
The News International
The News International , published in tabloid size, is the largest English language newspaper in Pakistan. The News has an ABC certified circulation of 140,000. It is published from Karachi, Lahore and Rawalpindi/Islamabad...

, Kashmiri is accused of organizing the December 2009 Camp Chapman attack
Camp Chapman attack
The Camp Chapman attack was a suicide attack against Forward Operating Base Chapman, a key facility of the Central Intelligence Agency in Afghanistan, on December 30, 2009. The base is located near the eastern Afghan city of Khost, in a stronghold of the Taliban movement...

 against the CIA and the United States was seeking his arrest and extradition.

In early 2010, Kashmiri was reported to be the new leader of al-Qaeda's Lashkar al Zil, or Shadow Army, following the apparent death of its former leader Abdullah Said al Libi
Abdullah Said al Libi
Abdullah Said al-Libi is described as being an al Qaeda operational leader in Pakistan.According to Bill Roggio a missile fired from an unmanned predator drone killed Said al-Libi on 17 December 2009 in North Wazaristan.-References:...

 by an American drone. Kashmiri was also said to have replaced al-Qaeda military chief for Afghanistan and Pakistan Mustafa Abu al-Yazid after al-Yazid was killed in a drone strike on 21 May 2010. According to journalist Amir Mir
Amir Mir
Amir Mir is a senior Pakistani journalist, known for his research work on Islamic militancy and terrorism in Pakistan. Currently affiliated with Pakistan’s leading English daily The News International as Deputy Editor/Editor Investigations in Lahore, he is closely following the Pakistani politics...

, citing Pakistani security sources, Kashmiri was subsequently assigned the role of organizing attacks against Western targets after the regional command was taken by Saif Al-Adel
Saif al-Adel
Saif al-Adel is an Egyptian explosives expert and a high-ranking member of al-Qaeda.Adel is under indictment for his part in the 1998 United States embassy bombings in Africa...

, a former Egyptian army colonel newly released from Iran.

In the wake of the killing
Death of Osama bin Laden
Osama bin Laden, then head of the Islamist militant group al-Qaeda, was killed in Pakistan on May 2, 2011, shortly after 1 a.m. local time by a United States special forces military unit....

 of al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden
Osama bin Laden
Osama bin Mohammed bin Awad bin Laden was the founder of the militant Islamist organization Al-Qaeda, the jihadist organization responsible for the September 11 attacks on the United States and numerous other mass-casualty attacks against civilian and military targets...

 on 2 May 2011 during an American operation in Abbottabad
Abbottabad
Abbottabad is a city located in the Hazara region of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, in Pakistan. The city is situated in the Orash Valley, northeast of the capital Islamabad and east of Peshawar at an altitude of and is the capital of the Abbottabad District...

, Pakistan, terrorism analysts put forth Kashmiri's name as one of several possible successors to lead the organization.

U.S. indictment

On 27 October 2009, a press release from the U.S. Department of Justice named Kashmiri as a conspirator to whom an American citizen from Chicago
Chicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...

, David Headley
David Headley
David Coleman Headley, formerly known as Daood Sayed Gilani, is a Chicago-based Pakistani American,who conspired with Lashkar-e-Taibaand, he claims, Pakistani military officers...

, arrested on terrorism related charges, "allegedly reported and attempted to report". The statement also noted that Kashimiri "issued a statement this month that he was alive and working with al Qaeda". A report on details of the investigation stated that Kashmiri "was in regular contact with Headley for some time and their communications suggested that they were in the process of plotting fresh attacks in India." Headley was reportedly distraught at news of Kashmiri's death, but after receiving confirmation that he was still alive, set off for Pakistan, at which time he was arrested by the FBI
Federal Bureau of Investigation
The Federal Bureau of Investigation is an agency of the United States Department of Justice that serves as both a federal criminal investigative body and an internal intelligence agency . The FBI has investigative jurisdiction over violations of more than 200 categories of federal crime...

.

Kashmiri was officially indicted on two counts, for "conspiracy to murder and maim in Denmark" (against the newspaper Jyllands-Posten
Jyllands-Posten
Morgenavisen Jyllands-Posten , commonly shortened to Jyllands-Posten or JP, is a Danish daily broadsheet newspaper. It is based in Viby, a suburb of Århus, and with a weekday circulation of approximately 120,000 copies, it is among the largest-selling newspaper in Denmark...

) and "conspiracy to provide material support to terrorism in Denmark".

During court testimony on 31 May 2011, Headley indicated that he had conducted preliminary research for Kashmiri in a plot targeting Robert J. Stevens
Robert J. Stevens
Robert J. Stevens, born in 1951, is the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Lockheed Martin.-Early life:Born in McKeesport, Pennsylvania, Mr. Stevens is a summa cum laude graduate of Slippery Rock University from which he received the Distinguished Alumni Award...

, the CEO of Lockheed-Martin, the defense contractor.

Blacklisted as a terrorist by US and UN

On 6 August 2010 the United States labeled Kashmiri a "Specially Designated Global Terrorist
Specially Designated Global Terrorist
Specially Designated Global Terrorist is a designation authorized under U.S. Executive Order 13224 , among other executive orders, and Title 31, Parts 595, 596, and 597 of the U.S. Code of Federal Regulations, among other U.S. laws and regulations. SDGT designations are administered and enforced...

" while the United Nations added him and his group HuJI to its blacklist established under UN Security Council Resolution 1267. The label allows the United States to freeze any of his assets in US jurisdiction and to "prohibit US persons from engaging in any transactions with him." The UN resolution requires UN member states to freeze assets, ban travel and ban the sale of arms
Arms embargo
An arms embargo is an embargo that applies to weaponry. It may also include "dual use" items. An arms embargo may serve one or more purposes:# to signal disapproval of behavior by a certain actor,# to maintain neutral standing in an ongoing conflict, or...

 to Kashmiri and HuJI.

Assassination attempt and reported death in 2009

Kashmiri was reported killed along with Hanifullah Janikhel and Kaleemullah in Machikhel, North Waziristan on 7 September 2009 when they were hit by a missile fired from a U.S. drone
Drone attacks in Pakistan
The United States government, led by the Central Intelligence Agency's Special Activities Division, has made a series of attacks on targets in northwest Pakistan since 2004 using drones . These attacks are part of the US' War on Terrorism campaign, seeking to defeat Taliban and Al-Qaeda militants...

. At the time he was reportedly one of the top 10 most wanted militant commanders in Pakistan. However, in mid-October Kashmiri was reported to have survived the airstrike and granted an interview to Asia Times Online
Asia Times Online
Asia Times Online is a bilingual English‒Chinese, Internet-based newspaper covering geopolitics, politics, economics and business "from an Asian perspective"...

s Syed Saleem Shahzad
Syed Saleem Shahzad
Syed Saleem Shahzad was a Pakistani investigative journalist who wrote widely for leading European and Asian media. He served as the Pakistan Bureau Chief of Asia Times Online and Italian news agency Adnkronos . He was found dead in a canal in North-east Pakistan, showing signs of torture, two...

. A senior American official was later quoted by The Washington Times
The Washington Times
The Washington Times is a daily broadsheet newspaper published in Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States. It was founded in 1982 by Unification Church founder Sun Myung Moon, and until 2010 was owned by News World Communications, an international media conglomerate associated with the...

 as saying "While there were preliminary indications that Kashmiri may have been dead, there is now reason to believe that he could be alive". One rumor among militants asserted that Kashmiri had been outside urinating when the house he was staying at was hit.

Death

On 3 June 2011, a US drone attack targeted a compound in the Ghwakhwa area of South Waziristan
South Waziristan
South Waziristan is the southern part of Waziristan, a mountainous region of northwest Pakistan, bordering Afghanistan and covering some 11,585 km² . Waziristan comprises the area west and southwest of Peshawar between the Tochi River to the north and the Gomal River to the south, forming...

, a Taliban stronghold. Nine militants, including Kashmiri, were reportedly killed in the missile strike. Three other militants were badly injured in the attack. Local officials reported that the militants in the compound were all members of the Punjabi Taliban. Kashmiri had moved to Wana from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa 10 days earlier. A spokesman for the Tehrik-i-Taliban stated that Kashmiri was alive and well. However, Lala Wazir, a spokesman for Mullah Nazir
Maulvi Nazir
Maulvi Nazir is a leading militant of the Pakistani Taliban in South Waziristan.Nazir's operations are based around Wana.He is opposed to foreign influence, particularly Uzbek and American, in Waziristan...

, a Taliban commander associated with the owner of the compound which was attacked, confirmed his death.

Qari Muhammad Idress, a close aide to Kashmiri and a senior HUJI commander, also claimed he was killed in the drone strike. Kashmiri's death was also confirmed by an e-mail from Harkat-ul-Jihad al-Islami and by an anonymous Pakistani security official. On 7 July 2011, CNN
CNN
Cable News Network is a U.S. cable news channel founded in 1980 by Ted Turner. Upon its launch, CNN was the first channel to provide 24-hour television news coverage, and the first all-news television channel in the United States...

 reported that an unnamed US Intelligence official said US officials were 99 percent certain Kashmiri was killed but he added "the folks that make that determination aren't ready to say so definitively." Shortly after his death, it was reported that it is alleged that Kashmiri's group had organised the assassination of Christian Pakistan Minister Shahbaz Bhatti
Shahbaz Bhatti
Clement Shahbaz Bhatti , popularly known as Shahbaz Bhatti, was a Pakistani politician and elected member of the National Assembly from 2008. He was the first Federal Minister for Minorities Affairs from November 2008 until his assassination on 2 March 2011 in Islamabad...

 and The Telegraph
The Daily Telegraph
The Daily Telegraph is a daily morning broadsheet newspaper distributed throughout the United Kingdom and internationally. The newspaper was founded by Arthur B...

 reported based on unnamed Pakistani officials that Kashmiri was organizing a death squad to avenge Osama Bin Laden's death
Death of Osama bin Laden
Osama bin Laden, then head of the Islamist militant group al-Qaeda, was killed in Pakistan on May 2, 2011, shortly after 1 a.m. local time by a United States special forces military unit....

.
In mid-July 2011, Dawn
Dawn (newspaper)
Dawn is Pakistan's oldest and most widely read English-language newspaper. One of the country's two largest English-language dailies, it is the flagship of the Dawn Group of Newspapers, published by Pakistan Herald Publications, which also owns the Herald, a magazine, the evening paper The Star and...

 reported that Kashmiri is still alive and active in the border areas of Pakistan and Afghanistan.

On 30 July 2011, the Indian government listed him as one the nation's five most wanted fugitives, indicating that Indian authorities think Kashmiri might still be alive. However, the US State Department's Rewards for Justice Program, which at one at point designated Kashmiri as a wanted terrorist and offered a $5,000,000.00 bounty for information leading to his capture, no longer has him listed as a wanted terrorist. The Al Qaeda also eulogized Kashmiri in the August issue of the Nawai Afghan Jihad magazine. On 31 August 2011, Asia Times Online
Asia Times Online
Asia Times Online is a bilingual English‒Chinese, Internet-based newspaper covering geopolitics, politics, economics and business "from an Asian perspective"...

reported that a well known Taliban commander named Shah Sahib had replaced Kashmiri as commander of the Brigade 313.
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