Islamabad: Abdul Rehman Makki, the alleged mastermind behind the 2000 Red Fort attack and the 26/11 Mumbai attacks, died in Pakistan on Friday.
Makki was reportedly admitted to a Lahore hospital following a cardiac arrest early in the morning.
He was the brother-in-law of Hafiz Saeed, deputy chief of Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), and was sentenced to six months’ imprisonment for terror financing in 2020 by an anti-terrorism court.
According to Jamaat-ud-Dawa (JuD), Abdul Rehman Makki had been ill for the past few days and was undergoing treatment for high diabetes at a private hospital in Lahore.
Who is Abdul Rehman Makki?
Abdul Rehman Makki was the deputy chief of the banned Lashkar-e-Taiba and a wanted criminal by Indian agencies.
Makki, one of the masterminds behind the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks, which killed 166 people, was involved in providing financial support for the operation.
He served as the head of the Foreign Relations Department and a member of the Shura (governing body) of LeT.
Apart from the Mumbai terror attacks, Makki was also wanted by Indian security agencies for plotting the Red Fort attack, where six LeT terrorists barged into the Red Fort on December 22, 2000, and opened indiscriminate fire on the security forces guarding the fort.
In 2018, Makki’s terror organization, LeT, was also implicated in the murder of senior journalist and Editor-in-Chief of the Rising Kashmir newspaper, Shujaat Bukhari, along with his two security guards.
Makki was arrested on May 15, 2019, by the Pakistan government and placed under house arrest in Lahore. In 2020, a Pakistani court convicted Makki of terrorism financing and sentenced him to prison.
The United States Department of Treasury had already designated Makki as a terrorist on its domestic watchlist and placed a USD 2 million bounty on his head.
Previous attempts by India and the US to sanction Makki as a global terrorist in 2022 had been blocked by China.
In 2023, Makki was designated as a global terrorist by the United Nations, subjecting him to an assets freeze, travel ban, and arms embargo.
(Inputs from agencies)
Who Was Abdul Rehman Makki, Most Wanted Lashkar Terrorist and Hafiz Saeed’s Brother-in-Law? world-news World News | Latest International News | Global World News | World Breaking Headlines Today
