NEW DELHI: Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) founding member Hafiz Abdul Salam Bhuttavi, who helped prepare the terrorists who carried out the 2008 Mumbai attacks, died in a Pakistani jail on Monday while serving a 16-year sentence for terror financing.
Bhuttavi’s death was announced by several organisations affiliated to the terror group, late on Monday night.
They stated that Bhuttavi died of a heart attack while lodged in a jail in Pakistan’s Punjab province. LeT’s front organisations also released a video purportedly showing the funeral of 78-year-old Bhuttavi that was held at the terror group’s ‘markaz’ or centre at Muridke, near Lahore, on Tuesday morning.
Indian intelligence officials have confirmed Bhuttavi’s death but said further details were not immediately available.
Responsible for fundraising, recruitment and indoctrination
Bhuttavi’s death was announced by several organisations affiliated to the terror group, late on Monday night.
They stated that Bhuttavi died of a heart attack while lodged in a jail in Pakistan’s Punjab province. LeT’s front organisations also released a video purportedly showing the funeral of 78-year-old Bhuttavi that was held at the terror group’s ‘markaz’ or centre at Muridke, near Lahore, on Tuesday morning.
Indian intelligence officials have confirmed Bhuttavi’s death but said further details were not immediately available.
Responsible for fundraising, recruitment and indoctrination
- Bhuttavi was the terrorist organisation’s ‘pre-eminent scholar’.
- He helped prepare the terrorists for the November 2008 attack in Mumbai, by delivering lectures on the merits of martyrdom operations. The Mumbai attacks killed over 160 people and injured many more.
- A US intelligence report stated that Bhuttavi had been responsible for fundraising, recruitment and indoctrination of LeT operatives for 20 years.
- He was also responsible for the LeT’s madrassa (religious school) network.
- In mid-2002, Bhuttavi was in charge of establishing an LeT organisational base in Lahore.
- Bhuttavi was a deputy to LeT chief Hafiz Muhammad Saeed, and served as LeT acting chief on at least two occasions when Saeed was detained.
- Bhuttavi was designated a terrorist by the United Nations Security Council in 2012.
- He was arrested and charged with terror financing by Pakistan several years later and convicted along with Saeed’s brother-in-law Abdul Rahman Makki, in a terror financing case in August 2020. Bhuttavi was sentenced to 16-and-a-half-years.