Just as India is producing a new unicorn startup every day, Pakistan is churning out a new terrorist outfit just as frequently. The latest addition to this roster is a fresh terror group called Tehrik-e-Taliban Kashmir (TTK). No sooner was it formed than it declared ‘jihad‘ against India, rejected the Line of Control, and warned the Pakistan Army not to interfere in its anti-India jihad. Before we get into why this new terror group has been created, let’s first look at who is really behind it.
According to a letter released by TTK, the group is led by Maulana Maqbool Dar and its spokesperson is Mufti Mehboob Butt Sopore. However, Intelligence sources claim these are fictitious names. In reality, the ISI has handed over the command to two individuals: former Pakistan Air Force officer and India’s wanted terrorist Abdullah Umar Khan alias Ghazi Shehzad, and Murtaza Khan alias Moosa Ghaznavi.
Sources say Ghazi Shehzad served as a Captain in the Pakistan Air Force during the Kargil War. In 2000, he was awarded a certificate by then Pakistan Army Chief General Pervez Musharraf, a recognition typically given to junior officers for acts of valour during wartime. A copy of this certificate is exclusively available with ABP News.
Shehzad has also served as a top commander of Lashkar-e-Taiba in PoK and hails from Sudhnoti district in PoK. The letter announcing the formation of Tehrik-e-Taliban Kashmir, which was released this past Sunday, was first issued by Moosa Ghaznavi, a former Lashkar commander from Rawalakot, via a Telegram group. Both men have now been tasked with running this new terror group.
After retiring from the Pakistani military, Abdullah Umar Khan alias Ghazi Shehzad joined Lashkar-e-Taiba back in 2001. In 2007, Lashkar sent him to carry out attacks in India, where he was caught during infiltration. He was jailed, served his sentence, and later repatriated to Pakistan.
Upon returning, he contested elections in PoK. Then, on Hafiz Saeed’s orders, he founded an anti-India group called Tehrik-e-Tawasur, an offshoot of Lashkar-e-Taiba, much like ‘The Resistance Front (TRF)’. Even though Pakistan later arrested him in 2023 along with other high-profile terrorists, like Hafiz Saeed and Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi, to avoid featuring on the FATF’s grey list, Shehzad was broken out of Rawalakot jail in July last year with the help of Pakistan’s Army and ISI.
Moosa Ghaznavi, on the other hand, joined Lashkar-e-Taiba in the early 2000s. By 2011, he was overseeing Lashkar propaganda operations in PoK, using social media and other platforms to radicalise Kashmiri youth and lure them into Lashkar’s training camps. According to intelligence reports, he now operates under the TTK banner to spread anti-India jihadist propaganda in PoK. Sources also confirm that ISI’s Covert Action Division (CAD) is based in Rawalakot, PoK. It was this unit that facilitated Ghazi Shehzad’s jailbreak and is now working with both Shehzad and Ghaznavi to operationalise TTK.
Why Munir Came Up With The Name
Counter-terrorism experts from both India and Pakistan believe this new outfit is part of Pakistan Army Chief General Aseem Munir’s covert strategy to revive terrorism in Kashmir. According to Junaid Qureshi, Director of the European Foundation for South Asian Studies (EFSAS), after the Pahalgam terror attack, Pakistan faced international condemnation. The global community acknowledged that attacks in India originated from Pakistani soil and supported India’s retaliatory actions. To deflect this scrutiny, Pakistan has floated TTK — a name that resembles Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) — to pretend it has no links with the group and is itself a victim of terrorism.
Adil Raja, a retired Pakistan Army major, says this is just another chapter in Pakistan’s long history of state-sponsored terrorism — from creating the Afghan Taliban, Lashkar-e-Taiba, and Jaish-e-Mohammed, to now the Punjabi Taliban. This legacy is why Pakistan ranks second in the Global Terrorism Index today. The TTK letter explicitly claims the group follows the ideology of Maqbool Bhat, mentions the UN resolution on Kashmir, and even quotes books by former Indian and Pakistani intelligence chiefs. According to Adil Raja, such precise referencing is a clear sign the letter was drafted inside Pakistan’s military headquarters, not by some rogue jihadist cell. It’s part of Aseem Munir’s broader policy of spreading terror in Kashmir without directly implicating the army.
Junaid Qureshi also warns that in the coming days, Pakistan may start attributing responsibility for attacks in Kashmir to TTK — just as it earlier used TRF and Kashmir Tigers to avoid FATF scrutiny. Importantly, it’s not just Intelligence sources saying Ghazi Shehzad is behind TTK. Even PoK police had earlier claimed that Shehzad was operating TTK in Kashmir, although at the time, TTK had not been officially launched, and according to sources that the army hadn’t informed police of their plans to use Shehzad.
PoK Police Hunts Ghazi Shehzad, But Here’s Where He Is
Sources said that Pakistan’s military and ISI plan to use TTK not only for attacks in India but also to suppress dissidents in PoK. Leaders of the Awami Action Committee, who are demanding separation from Pakistan, could be targeted by TTK under ISI’s orders, with blame shifted onto India to justify crackdowns.
While PoK police claim that they are hunting for Ghazi Shehzad and have put a Rs 1-crore bounty on him, sources say he is currently housed in an ISI safehouse on the PoK-Khyber Pakhtunkhwa border. He is being protected and prepared for Aseem Munir and ISI’s next operation. After this expose, Pakistan’s army and ISI might produce two new faces to claim leadership of TTK Maulana Maqbool Dar and Mufti Mehboob Butt Sopore but in truth, there is only one person in charge Aseem Munir and ISI.
