The Hindu : International : Leader of Lashkar group shot dead

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Sep 13, 2004

International

International

Leader of Lashkar group shot dead

By B. Muralidhar Reddy

ISLAMABAD, SEPT. 12. A senior leader of the Jamaat-ud Dawa, parent organisation of the Lashkar-e-Taiba, was shot dead by gunmen in Lahore on Sunday.

Police said Maulana Ibrahim Salafi, 55, was attacked while returning home after offering prayers at a mosque in Township locality. Salafi, who was a prayer leader at the mosque, died on the spot. The assailants escaped.

Split

The killing comes close on the heels of reports in a section of the Pakistani press about a split in the ranks of the Jamaat and a battle between the rival factions for control over the assets of the organisation.

Pakistan's English monthly, Herald, in its latest issue, says that the newly-formed splinter group of Jamaat-ud Dawa, called Khairun Naas (KN), headed by the rebel leader, Zafar Iqbal, has absorbed most of Lashkar's trained fighters.

Taken over

According to the report, those who joined the rebel group included the former head of the Lashkar, Zakiur Rehman Lakvi, the chief of its Lahore unit, Abu Shoaib, and several others.

The magazine quoted KN activists as saying that the Jamaat-ud Dawa's assets in the Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) have come under the control of the KN.

Most of the Dawa model schools, seminaries and hospitals in Sindh too have been taken over by the KN, it said. `

`Not only have the new KN members taken an oath to assassinate Saeed, many expect the situation to worsen when it comes to dividing assets between [the] factions,'' the magazine said.

The Jamaat, which claims to be a welfare organisation with vast assets in Pakistan, had been officially kept under ``watch'' by the Pakistan Interior Ministry last year.

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