Retired Pakistan brigadier behind 2018 J&K attack killed

NEW DELHI: Amir Hamza, a retired Pakistan army brigadier and a key ISI man, was killed by unknown gunmen in Pakistan's Punjab late on Monday. Hamza was known to counter-terror agencies as someone who was involved in ISI-engineered operations against India and was seen as among the brains behind the 2018 attack on Sunjwan Army camp in J&K. Six soldiers were killed and over a dozen injured in the attack.

He is the second Pakistani involved in the Sunjwan attack to have been eliminated. In last Nov, LeT commander Khwaja Shahid alias Mia Mujahid, suspected to be another key plotter, was found beheaded near the LoC in POK. Hamza's wife and daughter, who were with him in the car and who received injuries, told police that shooters did not take any belongings.

Hamza's wife and daughter, who were with him in the car and received injuries, told that police stressed that the slain ISI man didn't have any personal enmity with anyone. Pakistani police have said it was a targeted killing.

The attack took place in Jhelum district in Punjab. Hamza's car was ambushed by four unidentified men on motorcycles. The car had reached Lilla interchange in Jhelum when the quartet on two bikes cornered him from either side, Pakistani media reported. As per Jhelum police, the pillion riders opened indiscriminate fire, ensuring their target was killed, before fleeing the scene.

Express Tribune newspaper in Pakistan said Hamza's brother Ayub was a witness to the attack as he was following his brother's car on a motorcycle when the attack took place. Though a complainant, he too is under police scanner. Rescue 1122 service, which rushed to the spot, confirmed the retired brigadier's death at the scene and injuries sustained by his wife and daughter. "We are investigating it as a 'blind murder case'. We have registered a case and probe into the targeted attack is underway," Pakistan police told the local media. Hamza held key supervisory posts towards his retirement. His last position was as director general of the Emergency Services Academy (1122).

His is latest in a series of killings of Pakistanis linked to ISI-engineered terror attacks in India. In April, Amir Sarfaraz, a key ISI henchman and heavily protected, was killed by unidentified gunmen in Lahore. Unidentified men had also gunned down Adnan Ahmed aka Abu Hanzala, a top ranking Lashkar-e-Taiba commander and plotter of a series of attacks on security convoys in the Valley over the years, in Karachi in Dec. Jaish-e-Muhammed terrorist Shahid Latif, chief handler of the fidayeen squad that attacked the Pathankot airbase in 2016, was gunned down by unidentified assailants in a mosque in Sialkot in Oct.


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