Classification: Open-source / unclassified — for internal research use
Reporting window: Primary reports published 17 September 2026 (IST); underlying module-bust and Pahalgam-attack reporting dates April 2026
Executive Summary
A special National Investigation Agency (NIA) court in Jammu has issued a non-bailable warrant (NBW) against Saifullah, a Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) commander. The NBW has been issued over his alleged role in directing terror activity in Jammu and Kashmir, including the 22 April 2025 Pahalgam attack which killed 26 civilians in the area.
The development was reported uniformly across Indian media outlets on 17 September 2026. The NBW follows the NIA’s earlier disruption of a Kashmir-based LeT logistics module. Saifullah remains at large in Pakistan. Since the domestic Indian judicial instrument has no attached extradition mechanism, the warrant’s immediate effect is to formalise his wanted status before the court rather than to create any near-term prospect of custody.
Verified Facts
The warrant — key parameters
- Saifullah, alias Sajid Jatt / Saifullah Khalid / Saifullah Kasuri, is also known to use other aliases, such as Ali Bhai, Habibullah Malik, Langda, Noomi, Numan, Usman Habib, Shani
- He is the part of Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT). Prior (April 2025) reporting identify him supplementary as LeT deputy chief and as per a cited 2017 US Treasury designation, also the President of the Milli Muslim League.
- His reported address in Pakistan is Changa Manga village, Kasur district, Punjab, Pakistan.
- Last known India address (per NBW) Village Yamrach, South Kashmir (warrant forwarded to SSP, Kulgam, for execution)
- Legal action taken: Non-bailable warrant (NBW) issued by a special NIA court, Jammu; reported 17 September 2026.
- Legal status: Designated terrorist under the Fourth Schedule of the UAPA, per NIA’s submission to the court.
Even though the warrant was issued, “the accused person is at large and the investigating agency has not been able to procure his attendance in the ordinary manner”. However as per the protocols, the NBW was forwarded to the SSP, Kulgam, for execution at the accused’s last known address in South Kashmir.
Basis cited by the NIA in its court submission
- Saifullah has been operating from Pakistan, supplying weapons, funds and directives to terrorists in the Kashmir Valley, per the agency’s submission.
- Telegram-linked accounts (rendered “Telegraph IDs” in the circulating agency copy — likely a transcription artefact rather than a distinct platform) tied to Saifullah were reportedly recovered from an arrested Pakistani operative, which the NIA clearly indicates his role in directing attacks on security forces, civilians and government establishments.
- The NBW follows the NIA’s disruption of a “deep-rooted” interstate LeT module headed by Pakistani national Abdullah, alias Abu Hureira.
The related module bust — independently corroborated, April 2026
On basis of April 2026 reporting the module referenced in the NBW submission is corroborated by multiple independent outlets and is consistent in its particulars. Jammu and Kashmir Police, in conjunction with central agencies, arrested five individuals in a coordinated operation spanning 19 locations across Jammu and Kashmir, Rajasthan and Haryana. Abdullah alias Abu Hureira (a Pakistani national reported to have evaded Indian agencies for roughly 16 years after infiltrating around 2010); a second Pakistani national, Usman alias Khubaib; and three Srinagar residents — Mohammad Naqeeb Bhat, Adil Rashid Bhat and Ghulam Mohammad Mir, alias Mama were held on logistics-support charges. Investigators said Abu Hureira used forged Aadhaar and PAN documents to hide his Pakistani origin and that the network had helped at least one foreign operative travel onward to Indonesia on forged papers.
Saifullah’s reported background
- Prior India-based service: reported to have acted as an LeT commander in Kulgam district between 2005 and 2007 before relocating to Pakistan.
- Tenure: described consistently across sources as active within LeT’s ranks for “over two decades.”
- Organisational rank (drawn from earlier, April 2025 Pahalgam-attack reporting — not repeated in this week’s NBW coverage, and therefore weaker-sourced for the present story): identified by the Times of India and Deccan Herald as LeT deputy chief, head of a Peshawar-based LeT office, and a member of Jamaat-ud-Dawa’s Coordination Committee for Central Punjab Province; separately credited, via a cited 2017 US Treasury designation, as the individual installed as President of the Milli Muslim League, a JuD/LeT political front.
- Reported to have a close proximity to LeT chief Hafiz Saeed and to Pakistani military circles: sourced to Indian commentary (April 2025) rather than to the NIA court order, and should be read as an attributed claim rather than an adjudicated fact.
Contested or Unresolved Points
- Residence vs. operating base: this week’s reporting places Saifullah’s native address in Changa Manga, Kasur (Punjab, Pakistan). A separate April 2025 report (Tribune India, citing unnamed intelligence sources) placed him as operating from Gujranwala, Pakistan, under the alias Khalid. These are not necessarily contradictory — a native address and an operational base can differ — but the discrepancy is unresolved in open sources and should not be conflated.
- State linkage: Indian officials and commentary assert proximity between Saifullah/LeT and the Pakistani military establishment. Pakistan has expectedly denied state involvement in the Pahalgam attack.
Assessment
The NBW itself is a procedural escalation rather than a substantive intelligence breakthrough: it formalises within the Indian judicial system what agencies have asserted about Saifullah’s role since shortly after the April 2025 Pahalgam attack, and its trigger appears to be the evidentiary yield (recovered Telegram-linked accounts, module interrogations) from the April 2026 Abu Hureira arrest rather than any new development in the Pahalgam investigation specifically. Its practical significance is threefold: it keeps the NIA’s Pahalgam case formally moving toward a charge sheet against an absconding accused, it signals, via the Fourth Schedule/UAPA designation reference, that India continues to build a documented, court-anchored case file on Saifullah for potential future use (extradition requests, INTERPOL Red Notice consideration, or diplomatic leverage) and it also reinforces the broader pattern which is consistent with the Abu Hureira case of LeT sustaining India-based logistics and facilitation networks even while operational direction remains Pakistan-based.
More on Lashkar-e-Taiba terrorists:
Musa, LeT and ISI in the aftermath of Pahalagm attack: https://www.thestrategicperspective.org/musa-let-and-isi-in-the-aftermath-of-pahalgam-attack/
The Resistance Force (TRF): https://www.thestrategicperspective.org/the-resistance-force/
Pahalgam Terror Attack: https://www.thestrategicperspective.org/pahalgam-terror-attack/
Hafiz Saeed’s comrades drop like flies: https://www.thestrategicperspective.org/hafiz-saeeds-comrades-drop-like-flies/
Re-emergence of AQIS poses a threat in the Indian subcontinent: https://www.thestrategicperspective.org/aqis-the-reemerging-threat-in-the-indian-subcontinent/
LeT terrorist, Razaullah Nizamani, shot dead by unknown gunmen: https://www.thestrategicperspective.org/let-terrorist-razaullah-nizamani-shot-dead-by-unknown-gunmen/
Analysis on Pakistan grown terrorist groups: https://www.thestrategicperspective.org/analysis-on-pakistan-grown-terrorist-groups/
Fighting Terror: https://www.thestrategicperspective.org/fighting-terror/
NIA files supplementary charge sheet against Pakistani Canadian terrorist Tahawwur Rana responsible for 26/11 attacks: https://www.thestrategicperspective.org/nia-files-supplementary-charge-sheet-against-pakistani-canadian-terrorist/
ISI launches 15 terror camps post operation Sindoor: https://www.thestrategicperspective.org/isi-launches-15-terror-camps-post-operation-sindoor/
Operation Mahadev – Pahalgam Requite: https://www.thestrategicperspective.org/operation-mahadev-pahalgam-requite/
