Let the terrorists die: Hafiz Saeed’s close aide, Sheikh Yusuf Afridi shot dead by unidentified gunmen in Pakistan
Sheikh Yusuf Afridi, with Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) and close aide of Mumbai terrorist attack planner Hafiz SaeedHe was shot dead by unidentified gunmen in Pakistan’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province on Sunday, police said.A police source said that unidentified armed assailants opened fire indiscriminately on Afridi in Landi Kotal in Khyber district, killing him on the spot, the Press Trust of India reported. No group has claimed responsibility for the attack.Afridi is considered a key figure in the regional structure of the banned Lashkar-e-Taiba and is believed to have played a role in the group’s recruitment and coordination of activities in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.An official from Sayed’s banned Jamaat-ud-Dawa (JuD) said Afridi was “a well-known religious scholar who belongs to the Zahaher tribe of Khyber and is regarded as a prominent scholar of the Salafi school”.“He was targeted when unidentified assailants shot at him and managed to flee the scene. It should be remembered that extremist groups like Khawarij (Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan) – are currently facing strong intellectual and practical challenges from Salafi scholars,” Press Trust of India quoted him as saying.“The incident sparked widespread outrage in the area and local authorities have launched an investigation to arrest his killers,” a police source said.One week after the murder Amir HamzaThe founding leader of Lashkar-e-Taiba suffered gunshot wounds in an attack in Lahore. Hamza is considered the group’s second most important leader after Saeed, who has been imprisoned in Lahore’s Kot Lakhpat jail since 2019 after being convicted in a terror financing case.
