'The Dirty 7': Terrorists Wanted By India, The World, But Protected By Pakistan

NDTV

18-07-2025

New Delhi:
Seven of the world's most wanted terrorists - men with millions of dollars in bounties on their heads and who have orchestrated horrific attacks that claimed the lives of thousands, in India and abroad - are not hiding in rundown motels or 'roughing it out' in remote jungle camps.
Instead, they live as free men in Pakistan, backed and protected by the Pak Army and deep state, and operate with impunity, plotting terror attacks on India and Indians, recruiting and radicalising young men and women to perpetrate their violence, and living a luxurious life.
In the aftermath of the Pahalgam attack - in which 26 people were killed by terrorists from The Resistance Front, a proxy of the banned and Pak-based Lashkar-e-Taiba - the spotlight is now firmly on these terrorist leaders and Pakistan's inaction despite a mountain of evidence.
Who are these terrorists?
First up is Hafiz Saeed.
Saeed is the boss of the Lashkar, or LeT, terrorist group that he established in the early 1990s as the military wing of the Markaz-ud-Dawa-wal-Irshad, a Pak-based Islamic fundamentalist missionary group, according to the United States' Office of the Director of Naval Intelligence.
A ODNI report said the LeT is responsible for "numerous attacks against Indian troops and civilian targets across the country. The list of Lashkar assaults on India is long and bloody, and includes the bombing of commuter trains in Mumbai in 2006 and the 26/11 attacks on the city.
Over 360 people died in those two attacks alone.
Terrorist Hafiz Saeed is officially under 'house arrest' in Pak, but is actually a free man (File).
Lashkar terrorists also attacked the Red Fort in Delhi in 2000.
The man behind all these terror strikes has been designated a terrorist by the US and the United Nations and has a $10 million bounty on his head, but lives comfortably in Lahore under armed guard. Pak minister Bilawal Bhutto last month claimed Hafiz Saeed is under 'house arrest'.
The Lashkar HQ in Muridke was destroyed by India during Operation Sindoor.
Then there is Masood Azhar, the boss of the Jaish-e-Mohammed terrorist group that is also based out of Pakistan and protected by the Pak Army and deep state.
The mastermind of the horrific Pulwama and Uri terror attacks - which killed 59 soldiers and injured dozens more - Azhar was labelled a 'global terrorist' by the United Nations in 2019.
Cut to today... and he is officially 'untraceable'.
Pak claims they don't know the location of Masood Azhar (File).
Only he isn't; in November he gave a speech at an Islamic seminary in Pak's Punjab province and vowed more terror strikes on India. The Indian government demanded his immediate arrest but Pak dithered again, claiming it had, and still doesn't have, information on his whereabouts.
Earlier this month Mr Bhutto claimed Azhar might be in Afghanistan.
Intel, however, indicates Azhar continues to operate from Bahawalpur in Pak, which was also one of the terror camps disabled by missile strikes during Op Sindoor.
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Perhaps the ultimate sign of the protection offered to the LeT and JeM bosses are reports the Pak government has begun rebuilding launchpads and terror camps that were destroyed.
Next up is Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi, a fundamentalist Islamic preacher and a senior figure in the LeT. In fact, he is reported to be the terror group's military chief and was the architect behind the 26/11 Mumbai attack.
He was jailed by Pak, albeit very briefly, before being released on bail. This was despite India providing evidence of his role in the Mumbai attack.
Lakhvi was briefly in a Pak jail but was given bail despite India's protests (File).
Back in 2020, when Pak was on the 'grey list' of the Financial Action Task Force, a global anti-terror financing watchdog, Lakhvi did face significant financial sanctions from Islamabad.
But since then he has been as free as any of the other terrorists on this list, with addresses in Punjab province and even in Islamabad on the record. He is believed to have the protection of the Pak Army and even China; Beijing blocked a UN bid to place him on a key list of terrorists.
Fourth on the list is Syed Salahuddin, the chief of the Hizbul Mujahideen terrorist group and who has vowed to turn the Kashmir Valley into "a graveyard for Indian forces".
Hizbul chief Syed Salahuddin has vowed to kill Indian soldiers (File).
Designated a terrorist by the US' Department of State and India's National Investigation Agency, he still leads anti-India rallies in Pak-occupied Kashmir and calling for jihad against India.
Then there's Dawood Ibrahim, mob boss extraordinaire and one of the world's most wanted fugitives. The head of the infamous D-Company crime syndicate, he is wanted on charges of murder and murder-for-hire, extortion, drug trafficking, and terrorism.
Wanted crime boss and terrorist Dawood Ibrahim is living in Karachi (File).
He was labelled a 'global terrorist' by India and the US in 2003 for his role in the bombings in Mumbai a decade earlier, and was even on the 'most wanted' list of the US' Federal Bureau of Investigation.
The $25 million bounty on his head alone underlines his nefarious status.
He has been tracked to Karachi, where he is untouched, of course, under the security of the Pak government, its intel wing, the Inter-Services Intelligence, or ISI, and the country's armed forces.
There are many more, of course.
There is Iqbal Bhatkal, a bomber who founded the Indian Mujahideen, and his brother, Riyaz Bhatkal, the co-founded the group and acts as its financier. Both are in Karachi and run sleeper cells in India.
Multiple terror groups and terrorists use Pak as a launchpad to attack Indian territory, a state of affairs that continues despite India raising this at the highest levels in the international community, This includes providing a growing mountain of material highlighting Islamabad's roles in terror attacks.