‘JuD’ fighter gunned down in Rawalakot

Muhammad Riaz, also known as Abu Qasim Kashmiri, originally belonged to Surankot area of IIOJK

MUZAFFARABAD:

A former Kashmiri freedom fighter was gunned down in a mosque in Azad Jammu and Kashmir, officials said on Friday, in what a top leader termed a "targeted killing" – the third such death this year.

Police said Muhammad Riaz, also known as Abu Qasim Kashmiri, was shot dead by an “unknown” person at a mosque in Rawalakot.

Shehryar Sikandar, a senior police official in the area, said the prayer leader told police the assailant shot Riaz four times while wearing a motorcycle helmet. He said the investigation was ongoing.

Riaz originally belonged to the Surankot area of the Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir and reportedly migrated to AJK in the 1990s. He was known by locals to be associated with Jamaat-ud-Dawa (JuD). A spokesman for JuD did not respond to a Reuters request for comment.

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Last year, Pakistan accused India of orchestrating a bombing near the house of Hafiz Saeed, the founder of a JuD and LeT. India denied that.

Sardar Rizwan Hanif, a member of Jammu Kashmir United Movement, told Reuters from Rawalakot that Riaz was killed "for his association with the freedom of his motherland". He said Riaz was wanted in India. In a statement, Syed Salahuddin, the leader of Hizbul Mujahideen, decried Riaz's killing.

Riaz's death is the third such incident this year in Pakistan. In February, Bashir Ahmed Peer, alias Imtiyaz Alam, a former commander of Hizbul Mujahideen, was gunned down in Rawalpindi. Syed Khalid Raza, 55, was killed in Karachi in what police described as a targeted attack. Raza, working as an educationist, was said to be a former commander of Al Badr Mujahideen group that also operated in IIOJK.