Hizbul Mujahideen ‘top ranking commander’, Bashir Ahmad Pir alias Imtiyaz Alam, whom the Centre designated as a terrorist five months ago, was shot dead by unidentified gunmen in Pakistan’s capital Islamabad.
According to the Pakistani media reports, assailants fired at him when he was standing outside a shop in Islamabad’s Rawalpindi area on February 20 evening.
Alam was considered close to Hizbul Mujahideen chief Syed Salahuddin. At present, the ‘commander’ was in charge of sending fresh recruits into Kashmir by identifying infiltration routes and providing the logistics.
Alam alias Haji, belonged to Babarpora area in north Kashmir’s Kupwara district. He has been active since 2000 and operated from Pakistan.
The Centre designated Alam as a terrorist in October 2022. He was described as the “launching commander” of Hizbul Mujahideen, “especially for infiltrating into Kupwara, and coordinating with other terrorist groups for terrorist activities in Jammu and Kashmir”.
