Sajid Mir, 26/11 Mumbai attack mastermind 'poisioned' in Pakistan jail

LeT commander Sajid Mir, who was a major conspirator behind the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks.

26/11 Mumbai terror attacks mastermind, LeT commander Sajid Mir, who has been detained in Pakistan's Kot Lakhpat jail since an anti-terrorism court sentenced him in June last year, was admitted to the hospital, reports TOI.

Mir was reportedly poisoned and is on ventilator support. This comes after the report that he was transferred to a Dera Gazi Khan prison due to threat to life.

Sources, however, seemed cautious about the input, speculating that Pakistan's military-intelligence complex might be using them as a smoke screen to avoid international pressure to take tough action against the Lashkar commander.

It was not until the pressure on Pakistan grew manifold and the possibility of facing additional penalties from the FATF became real that Mir was found guilty of terror financing and given an eight-year sentence along with a fine of Rs 4.2 lakh.

The LeT commander was secretly detained in April last year, and the prison sentence was announced in June 2022, right before the FATF meeting—an intergovernmental body that monitors the financing of terrorism and money laundering.

Indian intelligence sources speculate that he might have staged his death in order to avoid being extradited to the US. The US government is looking for Mir, who has a $5 million bounty on his head, as announced by the FBI.

According to the FBI, Mir (45) underwent plastic surgery following the Mumbai attacks. He was once the foreign recruiter for LeT and served David Coleman Headley, a.k.a. Dawood Gilani, the principal handler for the American terrorist.

A document from the US Justice Department describes how, during the attack, Mir and his associates, Abu Qahafa and Mazhar Iqbal, were in real-time telephonic contact with the 26/11 attackers.

Headley had changed his given name from "Dawood Gilani" to "David Coleman Headley" on Mir's advice so that he could represent himself in India as an American who was neither Pakistani nor Muslim, which would facilitate his activities on behalf of Lashkar.

As a cover for his surveillance operations, Mir also suggested that Headley open an immigration office in Mumbai. He was paid $25,000 to set this up.