Ilyas Kashmiri

Ilyas Kashmiri, also referred to as Maulana Ilyas Kashmiri, Mufti Ilyas Kashmiri and Muhammad Ilyas Kashmiri (10 February 1964 – 3 June 2011 ), was a Pakistani ex-Special Forces Islamist guerrilla insurgent who fought against Indian troops in Kashmir.

NBC News reported that United States officials had mentioned him as a possible successor to Osama bin Laden as head of Al-Qaeda.

Prior to his death, a CNN News headline called him the "most dangerous man on Earth", while the late journalist Syed Saleem Shahzad said of him that "he is invariably described by the world intelligence agencies as the most effective, dangerous, and successful guerrilla leader in the world."

Physically described by the US Department of State as "approximately six feet tall" and weighting "about 200 pounds", Kashmiri was born on 10 February 1964 in Bhimber, in the Samahni Valley of Kashmir, Pakistan.

Kashmiri was reported by some media sources as having served in the Pakistan Army's elite Special Services Group (SSG), however he denied this in an interview with journalist Syed Saleem Shahzad.

His schoolteacher described the young Kashmiri as "an obedient student, a good athlete and an excellent debater."

Kashmiri later spent a year studying communications at the Allama Iqbal University.

He also studied for some time in Karachi's Jamia Uloom-ul-Islamia, a madrasa known to produce Islamist militants, where he'd form, with two follow students, the nucleus of what would become the first jihadi outfit of the country, Harkat-ul-Jihad-al-Islami (HuJI).

He would later himself built a madrasa as well a mosque in his home village Thathi, his wife and four children living next to these buildings.

In the Soviet war in Afghanistan, he trained the Afghan mujahideen in mine warfare in Miranshah on behalf of Pakistan.

During the fighting he lost an eye and an index finger.

During the mid-1990s, Kashmiri and Nasrullah Mansoor Langrial were near Poonch when they were seized by the Indian 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.

He was reportedly being rewarded personally with Rs 100,000 (about US$1,164.24) by then Army Chief General Pervez Musharraf for presenting the severed head of Bhausaheb Maruti Talekar, an Indian Army Soldier to him.

Pictures of Kashmiri with the head of the soldier in his hands were published in some Pakistani newspapers.

Kashmiri rejected orders to serve under Maulana Masood Azhar in the newly founded jihadist organisation Jaish-e-Mohammed and was once even targeted by the group.

He continued his militant activities in Kashmir after the war as a member of Harkat-ul-Jihad-al-Islami (HuJI), though disagreements with leader Qari Saifullah Akhtar several years after initially joining in 1991 led Kashmiri to establish his own new unit within HuJI known as the 313 Brigade.

Falling out of favour with the Pakistani military, he was 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 he apparently did little, but later returned to the 313 Brigade in the terrorist organisation Harkat-ul-Jihad-al-Islami (HUJI), which is closely tied to al-Qaeda.

Kashmiri rebuilt its strength while collaborating with the Taliban.

This was part of a broader movement of Kashmir militants moving to Waziristan, and Kashmiri reportedly moved personnel from his Kotli (Kashmir) training camp to a new one in Razmak (North Waziristan).

A U.S. indictment of Kashmiri stated 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, the 2010 Pune bombing, the assassination of Benazir Bhutto and the killing of Ameer Faisal Alavi.

Syed Saleem Shahzad wrote that Kashmiri proposed the Mumbai attacks to al-Qaeda leaders as a way to create a war that would bring operations against al-Qaeda to a halt.

The plan was approved and given to former LeT commander Major Haroon Ashik.

According to Asia Times Online, Kashmiri was behind a 2008 plan to assassinate Chief of Army Staff General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani as he stepped out of his car during daily visits to a gym; however, the al-Qaeda leadership rejected the plan on strategic grounds.

According to The News International, Kashmiri is accused of organising the December 2009 Camp Chapman attack against the CIA and the United States was seeking his arrest and extradition.

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, David Headley, 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.

Kashmiri was officially indicted on two counts, for "conspiracy to murder and maim in Denmark" (against the newspaper Jyllands-Posten) and "conspiracy to provide material support to terrorism in Denmark".

In early 2010, Kashmiri was reported to be the new leader of al-Qaeda's Lashkar al Zil, or Shadow Army, following the death of its former leader Abdullah Said al Libi by an American drone.

According to journalist Amir Mir, citing Pakistani security sources, Kashmiri was subsequently assigned the role of organising attacks against Western targets after the regional command was taken by Saif Al-Adel, a former Egyptian army colonel newly released from Iran.

Before his death, bin Laden had asked Kashmiri to plan an attack on Barack Obama, according to a column by David Ignaitius published on the Washington Post web site.

Ignaitius stated that his column was based on documents seized from the raid on bin Laden's compound.

On 6 August 2010, the United States labelled Kashmiri a "Specially Designated Global Terrorist" 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."

In the wake of the killing of al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden on 2 May 2011 during an American operation in Abbottabad, Pakistan, terrorism analysts put forth Kashmiri's name as one of several possible successors to lead the organisation.

During court testimony on 31 May 2011, Headley indicated that he had conducted preliminary research for Kashmiri in a plot targeting Robert J. Stevens, the CEO of Lockheed-Martin, the defence contractor.