Pakistan strikes Imam of Jihadis, Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi off terror watch list

New Delhi, Apr 22: In an expected move, Pakistan has taken off thousands of terrorists from its watch-list. The name of Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi, a prime accused in the Mumbai 26/11 attack and chief commander of the Lashkar-e-Tayiba has also been struck off the list.

Pakistan said that the names were taken of as many had died, while others were not part of any terror organisation.

It was revealed the data collected by Castellum. AI, a New York-based regulatory technology company that the list had been halved from 7,600 to 3,800. Pakistan says that this had been done owing to various inaccuracies. It further said that the list needed to be updated to fulfil the requirement of the Financial Action Task Force, which had asked for a cleaning up of the database ahead of its June assessment.

India, meanwhile is keeping a close watch on the developments. An official in the know of the developments told OneIndia that Pakistan may have violated the FATF standards. The officer also said that he was particularly surprised that Lakhvi had been struck off the list.
Lakhvi was one of the chief architects of the 26/11 attack and is also wanted for several other acts of terror on Indian soil.

Lakhvi has had a free run in Pakistan, despite India and the rest of the world providing Pakistan with proof regarding his acts of terror. Experts say that he is without a doubt the most passionate jihadi in Pakistan. When it comes to a passion to attack there is none more lethal than Lakhvi is what every analyst that we spoke to would say.

Unlike a Hafiz Saeed who can preach sermons against India, Lakhvi is a field man. He is not a great planner, but what he brings to the Lashkar is that element of passion. The manner in which he commands his forces and speaks about his passion to wage war against India has been a major draw for the Lashkar. The cadres love and respect him and they fought the fiercest of battles against India when Lakhvi was in command.

In Pakistan he is known as the imam of Jihadis. He has put his family on the battle field and every person in the Lashkar is in awe of him for this. His two sons, Abu Qasim and Abu Qatal died fighting in Kashmir against the Indian army.

He had also instructed his wife not to lose heart after they lost their sons. In fact, he instructed her to run a camp for those widows who had lost their husbands fighting in Kashmir.

These are the factors that have added to his reputation and hence is considered to be the most passionate jihadi of Pakistan. Even the Pakistan establishment realizes this and hence have very reluctantly kept him behind bars.

Some of his statements against India are a clear indicator of why he is loved so much in Pakistan. He had said that his primary agenda was the destruction of India. He also said that the entire network of the Lashkar would be extended into India.

He was the same one who said before the Kargil war that a war against India was on the cards. He said that it was time to prepare for the disintegration of India.

Apart from this, he has also threatened a major strike in New Delhi apart from swearing to liberate Kashmir and then Hyderabad.