Saifullah Kasuri, one of the prominent Lashkar-e-Taiba commanders who was accused of plotting the devastating Pahalgam terror attack on April 22, reportedly made inflammatory remarks against India and Prime Minister Narendra Modi at a rally in Lahore. According to a report by The Times of India, the rally took place on Wednesday and Kasuri was flanked by Pakistani security forces, fellow terrorist commanders and officials of Pakistan’s intelligence agency, ISI, reflecting how close the Pakistani establishment is to terror groups in the country.
According to TOI, during his rally, Kasuri boasted about the fame he witnessed following the attack. “I have become more famous since being accused of the attack,” he gloated, as per the report. Kasuri was also sharing the stage with US-designated terrorist Talha Saeed, son of Lashkar chief Hafiz Saeed, along with Malik Ahmad Khan, who is the speaker of the Punjab assembly. During his address, Kasuri also lauded Pakistan’s so-called Bunyan al-Marsoos operation, which was launched in retaliation for India’s Operation Sindoor.
“Allah loves those who engage in jihad,” he said while Pakistan officials cheered. The speeches appeared to be meant to rally members of the jihadi outfit after India’s successful precision strikes on the Lashkar headquarters in Muridke which killed several terrorists. In an apparent reference to PM Narendra Modi’s remarks a few days ago, Kasuri said they were not afraid of bullets.
Kasuri makes provocative remarks against PM Modi
While spewing venom against India, Kasauri also made inflammatory remarks against Prime Minister Narendra Modi. “Narendra Modi samajhta hai hum goliyon se darne wale hain? Ye uski bhool hai (Modi is mistaken if he thinks we are scared of bullets),” he said. The remarks were seen as the LeT terrorists’ response to PM Modi’s speech at the Bhuj rally earlier this week, in which he said that “Pakistan should be ready to face India’s bullets if it did not stop using terror as a weapon.”
Earlier, Kasuri had claimed that he played no role in the Pahalgam terror attack that led to the death of 26 tourists in Kashmir. In his address, Kasuri also lauded Pakistan’s cyber team for ’targeting’ India’s critical infrastructure of communications and railways, a claim which has already been proven wrong by the Indian authorities.
Impact Shorts
View AllIn the past, Kasuri was the president of the Milli Muslim League and also served on the Jamaat-ud-Dawa’s coordination committee, the ‘charity’ wing of Lashkar. Since the Pahalgam attack, the outfits have conducted several public rallies to gather funds in the name of supporting the so-called “jihad in Kashmir,” TOI reported.