EXPERTS FLAG INDIRECT THREAT TO INDIA OVER HAMAS’ ENGAGEMENT WITH PAK TERROR GROUP

Concerns over continuous engagement between Palestinian militant group Hamas and Pakistan-based terror groups may have been revived with a picture of senior Hamas leader Naji Zaheer meeting with leaders of the Lashkar-e-Taiba but experts have cautioned over an indirect threat rather than a direct threat to India’s security.

- SHIKHA SALARIA

While the engagement between Hamas and Pakistan-based terror groups is not new and has been continuously going on especially over the last three years, a latest undated video of Hamas leader Naji Zaheer being welcomed by LeT leaders at an event in Pakistan’s Gujranwala has thrown the spotlight on the bonhomie between Hamas and Pakistan-based terror groups.

In pictures from the same event that went viral on social media on Wednesday, Zaheer can be seen meeting with LeT leader Rashid Ali Sandhu, who identifies himself as the vice president of the Gujranwala division of the Pakistan Markazi Muslim League (PMML)- the political face of the banned groups - Jamaat-Ud-Dawa (JuD), LeT and Milli Muslim League (MML)- which participated in the February 2024 general elections in Pakistan but registered a dismal performance.

However, thisis not the first time that Zaheer, a Hamas commander andspecial representative of Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal to Pakistan, has attended meetings with Pakistani terror elements and officials.

In fact, there have been a series of meetings between Zaheer and other Hamas leaders with Pakistani leaders since 2023. According to report prepared by the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI), a US-based organisation that provides translations of Arabic, Persian, Urdu-Pashto, Dari, Turkish, Russian and Chinese media reports to the US government and its allies, Hamas representative Ali Baraka had met Aftab Khokhar, the then Pakistani ambassador to Lebanon at the headquarters of the Pakistani Embassy in Beirut.

On October 14, 2023-just a week after the Hamas attack on Israeli civilians, Zaheer had met with Maulana Fazlur Rehman the chief of the largest Pakistani Islamist political party the Jamiat Ulemaa-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F)in Peshawar to discuss the situation in Gaza, MEMRI reported.