Qari Ajmal — a leading Pakistani militant leader wanted for organising the 2009 attack on the Sri Lankan cricket team in Lahore has been ‘killed’ in eastern Afghanistan, Pakistani media reported quoting sources close to militants on Sunday, Oct 9.
Ajmal is the second senior Pakistani militant commander to have been killed in Afghanistan in nearly two weeks. The US-led NATO and Afghan forces killed leading Pakistani Taliban commander Azam Tariq and his son in Paktika earlier on September 25.
Ajmal is a leader of the banned Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LeJ); he had fled to Waziristan after the attack and was associated with Hakimullah Mehsood, the chief of the outlawed Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP). Mehsood himself was killed three years ago in a US drone attack.
Ajmal moved to Afghanistan from Waziristan like many other Pakistani militants and had been living with Mehsud Taliban in the Afghan province of Paktika, which borders Pakistan.
The attack on the Sri Lankan cricket team by a dozen gunmen at Lahore’s Liberty Chowk on March 4, 2009 claimed the lives of seven police officials. Cricketers Mahela Jayawaredene, Kumar Sangakkara, Ajantha Mendis, Thilan Samaraweera, Tharanga Paranavitana and Chaminda Vaas were injured.
The Express Tribune reports that Qari Ajmal was killed in a joint operation by foreign and Afghan troops in Aurgon area of Paktika.
In August, three suspected terrorists, who were allegedly involved in the attack on the Sri Lankan team, were killed in a police encounter in Lahore’s Manawan area.  They had been identified as Zubair, alias Naik Muhammad, Abdul Wahab, and Ateequr Rehman
According to Punjab’s Counter Terrorism Department, police had arrested a suspect while investigating a bomb attack at Moon Market that killed over 50 people. The suspect revealed to investigators that the attack had been planned at a house in Lakho Der village in Manawan. As the suspect led a CTD team to a place near Mian Town Bridge, seven to eight militants opened indiscriminate fire on them. The police immediately took cover and returned fire.
When the gunfight ended, three attackers and the suspect in police custody lay dead, while the rest of the attackers managed to flee. Police also claimed that they found a cache of arms at the site.