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26/11 plotter Abdul Rehman Makki dead in Pakistan

26/11 mastermind and LeT deputy leader Abdul Rehman Makki died in Pakistan
26/11 mastermind and LeT deputy leader Abdul Rehman Makki died in Pakistan
Written by Aparna Rawal

Deputy Lashkar-e-Taiba  (LeT) chief Abdul Rehman Makki, 70, died due to a heart attack in Lahore on 27th December 2024. He was one of the key conspirators in the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks in 2008. The attack killed 175 people and injured more than 300 individuals. In 2023 the UN designated Makki as a global terrorist. His assets were frozen, a travel ban was imposed on him and was also subjected to arms embargo. In a declassified document recovered from Osama bin Laden’s Abbottabad hideout, the 2008 Mumbai attack was regarded as a “heroic Fidai operation”. Prior to the Mumbai attack, al-Qaida chief Ayman al-Zawahiri made a visit to Islamabad to meet with the outfit’s former leader Osama. The meeting was arranged by Hafiz Abdul Rehman Makki.

Born on 10th December 1954 in Bahawalpur, Pakistan, Makki started as a Pakistani radical Islamist and later rose to the rank of second-in-command of Jamaat-ud-Dawah (JuD) a “Pakistani Islamic-welfarist-militant political organization” and even started using the honorific “Naib Ameer” of Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT). He was the cousin and brother-in-law of Hafiz Muhammad Saeed.

He was a teacher at the Islamic University of Madinah, Saudi Arabia. In 2004, he released a book justifying that fidayeen operations were not suicide attacks.

26/11 mastermind and LeT deputy leader Abdul Rehman Makki died in Pakistan
26/11 mastermind and LeT deputy leader Abdul Rehman Makki died in Pakistan

Initially, Makki was simply regarded as a shadow of Hafiz Saeed prior to Saeed’s  imprisonment in 2019. However over the years, his role became more significant in funding LeT’s operations. He was an essential part of  JuD’s proselytising teams.

Similar to Kashmiri American Council (KAC), based in Washington D.C. which is headed by Ghulam Nabi Fai (a known convict) who was funded by Pakistan ISI, Makki was also disseminating anti India propaganda while participating in events such as the February Kashmir Solidarity Day rallies in Islamabad. In 2010, Makki threatened India with “rivers of blood” in Kashmir and talked about seizing Kashmir with force. Like Fai, elements such as Makki, come funded from ISI funnelling the money to produce a positive account of the jihadist cause, disguised in the form of a false narrative of “self determination for Kashmiri state” and projecting India as a suppressor of human rights.

Abdul Rehman Makki and Hafiz Saeed were reported to have been working for Difa-e-Pakistan Council (DPC), which was tasked to defend Pakistan’s interests. Additionally, the organization also protested against the NATO supplies going through Pakistan in 2012. The protests were carried by religious extremists opposed to the Islamabad’s anti-terror collaboration with Washington.

The DPC had attracted a large turnout of supporters, which could have been viewed as the initial stages for the formation of a political party, which Makki may have sought to lead.

Post Mumbai attacks in 2008, despite Saeed and LeT’s JuD being designated for terror activities under UNSC Resolution 1267, Makki was able to evade being listed. Resolution 1267 provides for sanctions against individuals and entities which aid or finance the acts or activities of ISIL, Al-Qaida, associated individuals, groups, undertakings and entities.

However, post February 2010, Makki’s speeches against India earned him the attention of the US Treasury Department which led to him being designated and sanctioned as a terrorist in November 2010. “Treasury acted against Hafiz Abdul Rahman Makki, head of LeT’s political affairs department, for acting for or on behalf of LET,” the department had stated, adding that Makki had also assisted in raising funds for LeT, including “Approximately $248,000 to an LeT training camp and approximately $165,000 to an LeT-affiliated madrassa.”

It was speculated that one of the main factors for US in declaring a bounty of $2 million for Makki may have stemmed from his close proximity Taliban’s commander Mullah Omar and al-Qaeda’s Ayman al-Zawahiri.

In 2010, a joint petition was filed by Makki and Saeed at the Lahore High Court in 2014, challenging the bounty of $10 million declared by the United States in exchange for information about Saeed. Saeed, who was prepping for a political gig, claimed the US announcement were a pressure tactic “at the behest of India”.

It is important to mention the crackdown against the LeT/JuD in Pakistan commenced in 2017, after the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), a watchdog organisation tasked to monitor terrorist financing and money laundering added the pressure on Pakistan. As a result, just as before, Saeed was placed under house arrest temporarily, only to be released later.

In January 2018, a special cell of the Delhi Police arrested Bilal Ahmed Kawa at the Delhi airport. The individual was believed to be responsible for December 2000 attack on the Red Fort in Delhi. It was confirmed that the operation was supported by LeT’s Abdul Rehman Makki and Jamat ud Dawa (JuD).

In 2018 Pakistan proscribed JuD under its own 1997 Anti-Terror Act, amended as the Anti-Terrorism Ordinance. However, it may be noted that the increase in the cross-border infiltration and terror activities in Kashmir since 1991, came as a result of a compounded effort in collaboration of Pakistan intelligence, military and LeT. It has been observed that Pakistan has consistently and deliberately played a contradictory stance to appease the international communities by placing bans, detaining or making arrests in name of counter terrorism, while colluding with the very same outfits which seek similar agenda to destabilize India. It may be inferred that the policy of Pakistan is, instead of rehabilitating militants or curbing the terror outfits, to align or utilize the latter for their common agenda- be it the Taliban or a deemed problematic outfit by the state or its insurgents or its arch rival India.

Since FATF grey-listed Pakistan, it was expected that Pakistan would carry crackdowns on the internationally designated terror outfits such as LeT/JuD and Jaish-e-Mohammed, along with mosques and charities associated with them.

The grey-list designation impacted Pakistan’s financial services industry as well as country’s IMF program. One of the conditions in the $6 billion bailout was the requirement that Pakistan abide with FATF guidelines.

Pakistan was put on the list in 2008, removed in 2009 and then again remained under increased monitoring from 2012 to 2015. FATF later issued the 27-point action plan in 2018 and placed Pakistan on the ‘Grey List’. In 2022, Pakistan was removed from the grey list.

In 2021, Lahore High Court acquitted Makki of charges of terror funding through a LeT front organisation, a charity called Al Anfal. The Counter Terrorism Department (CTD) of the Punjab Police in Pakistan had filed over 40 cases against several members of the JuD, including Makki and Saeed, while a lower court had sentenced Makki to six months imprisonment. These incidents can be assumed to be the result of FATF’s pressure which was exacerbating Pakistan’s economic instability.

Since 2001, LeT has made a spotlight in the proscribed terror groups internationally.

In 2001, in Statutory Instrument 2001 No. 1261, British Home Secretary Jack Straw designated the outfit as a Proscribed Terrorist Organization under the Terrorism Act 2000.

In 2001, the United States Secretary of State Colin Powell, designated Lashkar-e-Taiba a Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO).

Possibly due to the US stance, Lashkar-e-Taiba was banned in Pakistan in 2002.

It is banned in India as a designated terrorist group under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act. In 2003, under the Security Legislation Amendment (Terrorism) Act 2002, Australia also added LeT to its list of terror groups and re-listed it in 2005 and 2007.

About the author

Aparna Rawal

Aparna Rawal is an independent research analyst and writer specializing in Af/Pak region and counter-terrorism. She was the former Editor-in-chief for Voice of Baloch. She possesses MA in International Relations and Diplomacy from Annamalai University, India.

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