The interrogation of Ajmal Ameer Kasab, the lone terrorist caught alive after the Mumbai attacks, has thrown up four names of the Lashkar-e-Toiba: Yousuf Muzammil, Hafiz Mohammad Sayeed, Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi (Naqvi, according to his passport) and Hafiz Abdur Rehman Makki. The stories, in brief, behind each name:Yousuf MuzammilHis name first surfaced this April when he was chosen as Lashkar’s top commander, replacing Abu-Al Qama as the India chief of the group. Sources said Al-Qama—who led Lashkar’s India operations for five years—was relieved of his charge some time in March on “health grounds”. Al-Qama returned to his home in Gujranwala and joined his family business, running a cloth shop. In April, an unidentified gunman, sources said, shot him in his shop.Soon after Muzammil took over, he suspended Lashkar operations and began a massive overhaul of the organisation. Sources who keep close tabs on the Lashkar’s top brass reveal that within the first few weeks of taking charge, Muzammil’s actions showed him as an “educated militant commander”, a “competent strategist” and an “effective motivator”.A scrutiny of his past revealed that Muzammil, who is between 35 and 40 years old, has been active in Lashkar for more than 12 years and rose from the ranks. He, too, is from Gujranwala and operated under different codenames throughout the last decade. It is learnt that Muzammil crossed over to Kashmir in 1999 and was put as Lashkar’s divisional commander for Pulwama in South Kashmir. Sources said Muzammil remained in South Kashmir for four years until 2003 and was known to security agencies in the Valley as ‘Double Mike’—his code—and frequently recognised through his Set code, 99. Muzammil, who is “well-built and tall”, is married with a son, Mohammad. After his return from the Valley to Pakistan, sources said Muzammil took another code name, Yasir, and was made the Lashkar’s launching commander in Muzaffarabad while Yousuf Cheema was the group’s operations commander for India. Although he is based in Muzaffarabad, he frequently travels to Karachi and Lahore.Hafiz Mohammad SayeedSayeed is the head (ameer) of the Jamaat-ud-Dawa and founder of the Markaz-e-Dawa-wal Irshad (Centre for Preaching and Guidance), which is the parent organisation for Lashkar-e-Toiba (Army of the Pure or Righteous). Markaz was set up in 1986 by Sayeed and two other Pakistani professors, Zaffar Iqbal (who took Abu Hamza as his alias) and Hafiz Abdur Rehman Makki (a close relative of Sayeed). Sayeed, now 58, is perhaps recognised by his hennaed beard and trademark Turkish cap. He lives in Muridke where his group runs an Islamic University. Sayeed generally travels in a Pajero under tight security and is surrounded by his followers. Though he renamed Markaz as Jamat-ud-Dawa soon after 9/11 and officially split his ties with the Lashkar, he is considered the topmost ideologue of the group. Sayeed’s ideological moorings cannot be understood without knowing his bloody past. As many as 36 members of his family were murdered during Partition in 1947 when his father, Kamaluddin, a landlord, moved to Pakistan. Sayeed is married to the daughter of his maternal uncle, Hafiz Mohammad Abdullah Bahawalpuri, a well-known religious leader and Ahle Hadith scholar. In 2002, Sayeed married again—this time a young widow of a slain militant. Three members from his widely dispersed family have been drawn into the organisation’s ranks. His son, 31-year-old Talha, looks after the affairs of the Lashkar at its base camp in Muzaffarabad. Another of his close relatives, Hafiz Abdur Rehman Makki, is his number two in the Jamat-ud-Dawa at Muridke. Sayeed’s brother, an Imam in Boston, US was deported while his other brother and a brother-in-law are still Imams in the US. Hafiz Abdur Rehman MakkiMakki is the second in command in the Jamat-ud-Dawa and head of the organisation’s political affairs. One of the founders of the Markaz-e-Dawa-wal-Irshad (the parent outfit of the Lashkar), Makki regularly addresses Friday prayers in Lahore besides teaching at Muridke. In his booklet Tareekh-e-Islam Kay Fadayee Dastay (the fidayeen squads in Islamic history, published in 2004 by Darul Undlas, Lahore), he claimed that Lashkar fidayeen Hafiz Muhammad Akmal, who attacked the Bandipore BSF headquarters in Kashmir in 1999, was the first suicide attacker.Zaki-Ur-Rehman LakhviOn May 27, 2008, when the United States Department of Treasury designated the top four leaders of Lashkar, Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi, a top commander, found mention, along with Sayeed. Lakhvi is 48 and has been with Lashkar since 1992. “In 2006, Lakhvi instructed Lashkar associates to train operatives for suicide bombings. Before that, Lakhvi instructed Lashkar operatives to conduct attacks in well-populated areas,” the US treasury department had said. It lists Lakhvi’s aliases as well: Abu Waheed, Irshad Ahmad, Arshad and Chachajee. Sources in the security agencies say Zaki has been on their radar for over a decade. However, it is learnt that when Sayeed decided to rename Markaz-e-Dawa-wal-Irshad as Jamat-ud-Dawa in December 2001 and officially separated this new group from the Lashkar, it provoked a bickering. Lakhvi disapproved of the decision because this put the Jamaat-ud-Dawa in control of all funds and infrastructure and sidelined the militant wing.
