Mastermind of Kashmiri Editor’s murder Has Bengaluru Link

Sajjad Gul, the key conspirator behind the assassination of senior Kashmiri journalist, did MBA in Bengaluru.

New Delhi: Almost all major crimes and terror attacks have a link to Bengaluru. It now emerges that Sajjad Gul, the key conspirator behind the assassination of senior Kashmiri journalist Shujaat Bukhari, did MBA from a private institution in Bengaluru.

Gul is a 48-year-old Lashkar-e-Taiba recruiter from Kashmir who crossed over to Pakistan five years ago and is settled in Rawalpindi.

Besides having a management degree, Gul had also trained as a laboratory technician before he turned to terrorism. He was actively involved in terror-related activities.

He was caught and was lodged in Srinagar Central Jail and Delhi’s Tihar Jail before escaping to Pakistan. His first-hand knowledge about native journalists came handy for Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba.

The order to kill Bukhari came from LeT chief Hafiz Saeed and Gul was told to execute it. He assigned the job to local militants he personally selected.

But why Bukhari? The editor-in-chief of Srinagar-based English daily Rising Kashmir had angered Lashkar and other Pakistan-controlled terror groups by supporting the Ramzan truce announced by the Centre. His murder was planned in March after the appointment of former Intelligence Bureau chief Dineshwar Sharma as J&K interlocutor. Lashkar was keen to eliminate those who supported efforts for peace.

“The order to execute Bukhari was given by the Lashkar-e-Taiba chief and only an extremely small group of members was involved,” an intelligence officer told ToI. Gul, he said, was asked to recruit local militants to kill Bukhari. Sources said

J&K interlocutor Sharma held meetings with as many as 16 groups, reaching out to families of policemen, tribals, hawkers, drivers and journalists who were killed in terror attacks as well as kin of those who had been lured into joining Lashkar and other terror groups over the past five years.