Killing of Hamid Lelhari leaves al-Qaeda without a leader in Kashmir

Nahla Abdel Moneim

The Jammu and Kashmir provincial director general of police (DGP) announced on Wednesday, October 23 that Hamid Lelhari, leader of the terrorist group Ansar Ghazwat-ul-Hind, has been killed in a massive security offensive launched by troops on the town of Awantipura in the Pulwama district of the disputed Kashmir region between India and Pakistan.

The authorities consider Lelhari’s death, which occurred just months after he took over the management of the group representing al-Qaeda in the region, a major victory for the security forces in preparation for imposing control on the region and ending the spread of terrorism.

Official statement

Provincial DGP Dilbagh Singh said in a statement that the security forces were able to kill six extremely dangerous terrorists during a raid on October 22. Three of them were in the Tral region, and the rest in Awantipura, including Lelhari, the successor of Zakir Musa, who was killed by security forces in May 2019.

Ansar Ghazwat-ul-Hind was uprooted from region’s valley, Singh said, stressing the state’s determination to succeed in the fight against terrorism. He pointed out that this success will be achieved only when the local Kashmiri youth do not take the path of militancy and instead choose the path of peace.

The Indian police chief did not fail to blame the Pakistani government for pushing many extremists towards its regional neighbors for strategic and political interests.

Al-Qaeda’s arrowhead Lelhari

According to information available so far about the killed al-Qaeda leader, Indian newspaper Deccan Herald reported that the media wing of Ansar Ghazwat-ul-Hind had released a video announcing the inauguration of Hamid Lelhari as head of the al-Qaeda group in early June 2019, just two weeks after the group’s founder Zakir Musa was killed. The video had also announced the appointment of Ghazi Ibrahim Khaled as Lelhari’s deputy.

The 30-year-old Lelhari was a resident of the village of Lelhar in Pulwama, which is controlled by Indian authorities in the province. Before his ascension to the terrorist group’s leadership, Lelhari served as deputy to Musa after they and a group of about a dozen militants separated from Hizbul Mujahideen and swore allegiance to al-Qaeda in July 2017.

The newspaper took a look at Lelhari’s slip from school to his slide into terrorist groups. He worked as a construction worker before joining the ranks of the militants, and his name did not appear on the security forces’ last list of the top 10 military leaders in Kashmir before he assumed the group’s leadership.

Ansar Ghazwat-ul-Hind

Ansar Ghazwat-ul-Hind is an extremist group affiliated with al-Qaeda and representing its military arm in Jammu and Kashmir. It has been deployed in the region since July 2017 after being founded by Zakir Musa. The terrorist group has been publishing videos calling on Muslims in the region to fight against India, attack army and police patrols and checkpoints. It also called for adopting the “lone wolf” strategy in the region.

In May 2019, security forces in India killed the group’s leader and founder, Zakir Musa, after years of pursuit. Al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri released a new video in early July 2019 calling on militants and Muslims not to forget Kashmir, stressing the need for continued fighting in the region against security and official institutions, in an attempt to whet the elements’ concerns that had cooled as a result of Musa’s killing because of its significant impact on extremists there.

Al-Qaeda and ISIS: The latter wins

Commenting on this, Ahmed Kamel al-Beheiri, a researcher of terrorist movements at the Al-Ahram Center for Political and Strategic Studies, said that al-Qaeda is facing severe security blows and is no longer able to arrange its ranks and organize strong attacks.

Beheiri stressed that al-Qaeda lost its regions and influence due to competition with ISIS, which was able to defeat al-Qaeda in more than one region, especially Asia, which was in the past the strongest and most organized al-Qaeda stronghold.