Who is Amir Hamza? 26/11 mastermind and IISc attack architect wounded in Lahore

The double agent of Pakistani spy agency ISI and the American CIA, David Coleman Headley, described him as a Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) commander known to blow his own trumpet. He has also been known as some kind of India expert in the Lashkar since he not only managed to carry out an attack on Bengaluru’s Indian Institute of Science in 2005, in which Prof Munish Chandra Puri, a retired professor of mathematics, was killed, and four others were injured, but after the attack escaped back to Pakistan as well.

Amir Hamza injured in Lahore attack

Meet Amir Hamza, now in his mid-60s, who was targeted in Lahore on Thursday (April 16) when he was leaving the office of a news channel 24 News HD in the company of an ex-judge who now hosts a religious programme on the channel. The channel said Hamza was injured in an attack carried out by unknown gunmen.

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This was the second attack on Hamza within a span of a year. He has received injuries on his arms in the attack.

Hamza and 26/11 Mumbai attack

Headley told interrogators that Hamza was present in the Karachi-based control room of Lashkar when the ten men involved in the 26/11 terror attack on Mumbai were being guided from there in 2008.

Considered to be one of the founding members of Lashkar, Hamza also gave motivational talks to the ten Mumbai attackers on how to escape after the attack, as in the initial days of planning, it was not to be a suicide attack.

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Headley told interrogators that one of the Lashkar controllers of the attack, Sajid Mir, was very keen about charting out the escape route for the attackers. The plan was for them to board a train from Mumbai after the attack and reach Kashmir where they could hide for a while.

Suicide mission

But later the plan changed to “stronghold”, one where the attackers had to stay put as the “egress option” started looking difficult. The Lashkar leadership later started giving lectures to the 10 attackers about “shahadat” (suicide mission).

Hamza was also one of the Lashkar handlers who went along with the attackers, but in another boat, when they shifted to an Indian boat MV Kuber that took them to the shores of Mumbai. He was totally involved in the planning and execution of the 26/11 Mumbai attacks, explained Headley to the Indian interrogators after his arrest in the US in 2009.

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The channel 24 News HD is part of the media empire of Pakistan’s interior minister Mohsin Naqvi who is also chief of the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB). Known to be the right-hand man of Pakistan’s de facto ruler Field Marshal Asim Munir, Naqvi founded City News Network which has many channels in its bouquet. Naqvi is in Tehran at the moment with Asim Munir in connection with mediation efforts between the US and Iran.

Sanctioned by US Treasury Dept

Along with other top operatives of Lashkar, Hamza too has been brought under the sanction regime of the United States Treasury Department. In 2012, the US Treasury Department said Hamza was a member of LeT's central advisory committee and “actively maintained LeT's relationships with other groups under the direction of LeT chief Hafiz Muhammad Saeed. Hamza has led an LeT-associated charity and, as of 2010, was also an officer and member of an LeT university trust that was led by Saeed”.

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“Hamza has served as editor of an LeT weekly newspaper and, as of mid-2011, he was contributing articles to the LeT publication. Hamza was also one of three LeT leaders to negotiate the release of detained LeT members as of mid-2010. Hamza served as the head of LeT's ‘special campaigns’ department as of mid-2009,” added the US government in its statement.