Mysterious Gunmen Strike Again: LeT Co-Founder Amir Hamza Shot at in Lahore

Lahore, April 16, 2026 — In yet another brazen attack on wanted anti-India figures operating out of Pakistan, Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) co-founder and top ideologue Amir Hamza was shot at by unidentified gunmen in Lahore on Thursday. This marks the second assassination attempt on the 67-year-old designated global terrorist in less than a year.

The incident occurred near the Pindi Stop area in Lahore while Hamza was returning home from a local television station. He was reportedly accompanied by a Pakistani judge, Nazir Ahmad Ghazi, at the time of the attack.

The Attack

According to local reports, the typical modus operandi seen in a recent string of mysterious killings was employed again. Two armed men riding a motorcycle intercepted Hamza and opened fire before fleeing the scene. Following the shooting, the injured LeT commander was swiftly rushed to a nearby hospital. His current medical condition remains undisclosed.

This is the second time Hamza has found himself in the crosshairs. In May of last year, he survived a similar assassination attempt when unidentified assailants shot him in the waist. While local sources previously attributed the 2025 attack to an internal rift within various LeT factions, the perpetrators of both attacks remain officially “unknown.”

Who is Amir Hamza?

Hailing from Gujranwala city in Pakistan’s Punjab province, Amir Hamza has been a central pillar of the Lashkar-e-Taiba network for decades. He was officially designated as a global terrorist by the United States Department of the Treasury in August 2012.

Often referred to internally as an ‘Afghan Mujahideen,’ Hamza is known to be an extremely close confidant of LeT founder Hafiz Muhammad Saeed and Abdul Rehman Makki. He served on the central advisory committee of the terror group under Saeed’s direct leadership.

His involvement in anti-India activities is extensive. In the early 2000s, Hamza was tasked with setting up terror networks and sleeper cells across India. Notably, he was identified as one of the key conspirators behind the deadly 2005 terror attack on the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) in Bengaluru.

Ideologue and Propagandist

Beyond operational logistics, Hamza served as the intellectual and propaganda chief for Lashkar-e-Taiba. He headed the group’s publication division, serving as the editor of an LeT weekly newspaper and writing extensive propaganda materials. He is the author of several radicalization texts, including ‘Qafila Da’wat aur Shahadat’ (Caravan of Proselytizing and Martyrdom) and ‘Shahrah-e-Bahisht’ (Road to Paradise).

According to US intelligence files, Hamza also led an LeT-associated charity, served as an officer for a Lashkar university trust run by Hafiz Saeed, and headed the outfit’s “special campaigns” department, which included negotiating the release of detained Lashkar members.

In 2018, following international pressure and bans on Lashkar and its front organization Jamat-ud-Dawah, Hafiz Saeed tasked Hamza with forming a new splinter outfit named Jaish-e-Manqafa to circumvent the sanctions.

The latest shooting adds to a growing, unexplained pattern of targeted attacks against high-profile, anti-India terrorists residing on Pakistani soil over the past two years.