Amjad Farooqi
Amjad Farooqi (Urdu: امجد فاروقی; 1972 – September 26, 2004), alias Amjad Hussain, was a Pakistani militant who operated in Indian-administered Kashmir, Afghanistan and Pakistan.[1][2][3][4][5][6][7]
Amjad Farooqi | |
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| Native name | امجد فاروقی |
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| Born | c. 1972 Punjab, Pakistan |
| Died | September 26, 2004 (aged 31–32) Nawabshah, Sindh, Pakistan |
| Allegiance |
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| Engagements | |
Farooqi was believed to have been involved in the 1995 kidnapping of Western tourists in Jammu and Kashmir, and under the alias Mansur Hasnain, was suspected to be one of the hijackers of Indian Airlines Flight 814, which was rerouted to Taliban-controlled Afghanistan in 1999.[8]
He was allegedly involved in the murder of American journalist Daniel Pearl in 2002, and, along with Abu Faraj al-Libbi, the assassination attempts on Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf on 14 and 25 December 2003. Farooqi was also suspected of having been an associate of al-Qaeda terrorist Khalid Sheikh Mohammed.
Pakistani security forces launched a massive manhunt for Farooqi and other terrorists in May 2004, and eventually cornered him in his safehouse in Nawabshah, Sindh, where he was subsequently killed following a two-hour-long gunfight.
Farooqi was a member of Jaish-e-Mohammed, an Islamic terrorist group that was founded by Pakistani militant Masood Azhar following his release by India as part of prisoner negotiations after the Taliban's hijacking of Indian Airlines Flight 814 in December 1999.
References
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Zulfiqar Memon (26 September 2004). "Security forces kill Amjad Farooqi". Dawn (Pakistan). Archived from the original on 25 July 2011.
An alleged terrorist, who was later identified as an Al Qaeda kingpin Amjad Farooqi, was killed and seven other people, including two women and three children, were arrested after security forces raided a house in Ghulam Hyder Shah Colony here on Sunday.
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Syed Saleem Shahzad (28 September 2004). "In Pakistan, dead men tell no tales". Asia Times. Archived from the original on 22 November 2010.
Asia Times Online contacts, however, are adamant that Farooqi was in fact arrested some months ago, and that the "incident" resulting in his death in the southern Pakistani city of Nawabshah was in fact stage-managed by Pakistani security forces.
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Syed Saleem Shahzad (29 September 2004). "Pakistan gets its man ... sort of". Asia Times. Archived from the original on 22 November 2010.
However, extensive Asia Times Online research throws up a different picture. Before the "war on terror" was launched after September 11, 2001 - when Musharraf threw in his lot with the US - Farooqi was an impoverished foot soldier in a jihadi organization. It is only in the past six months that he has suddenly emerged as a "kingpin" and super villain, with the source invariably being from the official side.
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B. Raman (30 September 2004). "Why Amjad Farooqi had to die". Asia Times. Archived from the original on 22 November 2010.
All accounts from Nawabshah indicate that if the Pakistani authorities had wanted they could have caught him alive and questioned him about the role of Pakistani civilian and military officials in various terrorist incidents of the past three years, including the kidnapping and murder of US journalist Daniel Pearl, the attempts to kill Musharraf himself and Shaukat Aziz, the prime minister, and the attacks directed against US and French targets in Pakistan. But they did not want him alive.
- "Profile: Amjad Farooqi". BBC News. 27 September 2004. Retrieved 15 December 2010.
- "Musharraf hails blow to al-Qaeda". BBC News. 27 September 2004. Retrieved 15 December 2010.
- B. Raman (2009). "Who Was Amjad Farooqi in Whose Name Pak GHQ Has Been Raided?". South Asia Analysis Group. Archived from the original on 13 June 2010. Retrieved 15 December 2010.
- http://www.terrorismanalysts.com/pt/index.php/pot/article/view/655/html