Who is Amir Hamza? LeT ‘co-founder’ hospitalised in Lahore after getting ‘critically’ injured

Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) co-founder Amir Hamza has been critically injured at his residence and is currently hospitalised in Lahore, according to a report by the Times of India.

The report said that the 66-year-old editor of Lashkar’s publications was reportedly critically injured at his residence and is currently being treated at a military hospital in Lahore under the protection of Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI).

Telegram channels affiliated with Lashkar supporters referred to the incident on 20 May evening, urging members to stay strong during the ‘crisis’ and maintaining that it was simply an ‘accident,’ according to reports.

Hamza's injury comes three days after Abu Saifullah, a senior Lashkar operative and key recruiter, was shot dead by unidentified gunmen in Pakistan. Hamza, one of LeT’s seventeen founding members, sustained injuries in an accident at his home, according to reports.

Razaullah Nizamani Khalid alias Abu Saifullah, a key terrorist associated with Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), has been killed in Pakistan's Sindh province, a new report said on Sunday.

According to a report by news agency PTI, Razaullah Nizamani Khalid, who was a top mind behind orchestrating several high-profile terror attacks in India, was attacked by ‘unknown assilants’.

Who is Amir Hamza?

Born on 10 May 1959, Amir Hamza, also known as Maulana Ameer Hamza, is the nom de guerre of a veteran of the Afghan mujahideen and one of the founders of the Islamic militant group Lashkar-e-Taiba. A fiery speaker and a prolific writer, Hamza is a top LeT ideologue, according to reports.

Before handling Lashkar's propaganda, Hamza, who belongs to Gujranwala in Pakistan's Punjab province, was an active terrorist who was active in India in the early 2000s. He and Saifullah, who was killed earlier this month, were part of the group behind the 2005 attack on the Indian Institute of Science in Bengaluru.

The United States Treasury Department has designated Lashkar-e-Taiba as a terrorist organisation and lists Amir Hamza as a sanctioned terrorist.

In 2002 Hamza published Qafila Da'wat aur Shahadat (Caravan of Proselytizing and Martydom). In 2018 Hamza left Lashkar-e-Taiba and formed his own fund raising group called Jaish-e-Manqafa.