Cook, Plumber, Painter, Stock Trader: Unusual ‘Career Path’ Of Oldest Lashkar Terrorist

SRINAGAR/NEW DELHI : From a cook to plumber, and painter to electrician, Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) terrorist Abdullah alias Abu Hureira, who had been tasked with setting up bases outside Jammu and Kashmir, even took share trading as his profession to blend with the masses in other parts of the country in pursuit of his sinister agenda, officials said on Monday.
Tracking his stay in various parts of the country, including Rajasthan, Haryana and Punjab, Abdullah, who was the oldest surviving LeT terrorist, gave a detailed picture about his stay in these states and told interrogators about the professions adopted by him to gel with the local population, the officials said.
These details emerged after Srinagar police busted a “deep-rooted” interstate LeT module and arrested five people, including Abdullah, who had been on the run for 16 years.
The officials said that after undertaking menial jobs in Rajasthan, Abdullah, who had infiltrated into Jammu and Kashmir from the north side in 2010, took up plumbing work as he had some basic knowledge about it from Pakistan.
After getting in touch with the contacts of Umer Harris, known with the alias ‘Khargosh’ in the counter-terrorism grid in Jammu and Kashmir, he managed to procure an Aadhar card followed by a Permanent Account Number (PAN) card so that he could receive digital payments from his customers, the officials said.
Hailing from Kasur village in Pakistan’s Punjab province, Abdullah, who was well-versed in Punjabi dialect, decided to shift his base to Amritsar but the fear of getting caught by security agencies restrained him from doing so.
After doing other jobs like that of a painter and electrician in Rajasthan and Haryana, Abdullah decided to shift to Malerkotla village in Punjab where he could speak in his Punjabi dialect, the officials said.
The LeT terrorist opened a ‘dhaba’ (roadside eatery) for some time, during which he learned how to trade in stocks. The eatery did not generate much profit, so he decided to close it down, but by then he had gained significant experience in stock trading from YouTube, the officials said.
At the time of his arrest, he had a profit margin of over Rs 50,000 in his Demat account and he was also teaching others and giving them tips for investments, the officials said.
Abdullah was arrested by Jammu and Kashmir police earlier this month and is being questioned extensively about the possible cells created by him outside the union territory.
The arrest of Abdullah, along with another Pakistani national, Usman alias Khubaib, was another major success for the Srinagar police that comes six months after the dismantling of a “white-collar” terror cell centred at Faridabad’s Al Falah University that is linked to the November 2025 Red Fort blast case.
During interrogation, Abdullah told his interrogators about his and Harris’ (alias ‘Khargosh’) footprints across India, especially in Rajasthan, Haryana and Punjab, which included a marriage ceremony solemnised by the escaped terrorists with the daughter of a terror sympathiser in Kashmir, the officials said.
The operation, which began on March 31 and was monitored by Director General of Police Nalin Prabhat, who camped in Srinagar, has unveiled the funding and financial pattern of the LeT, officials said.
The terrorists used forged documents and identities to create a network not just in Jammu and Kashmir, but in several other states, they added.
Three Srinagar residents, identified as Mohammad Naqeeb Bhat, Adil Rashid Bhat, and Ghulam Mohammad Mir alias Mama, were among the five arrested. They are accused of providing shelter, food and logistical support to the terrorists.
The elaborate network began to unravel on March 31 when the first of the three Srinagar residents, Naqeeb Bhat, was arrested from Pandach along with a pistol and other incriminating material.
During his questioning, Bhat told the police that he was a part of the LeT and procured the arms and ammunition from another associate, Adil Rashid of Zakoora and also provided support to foreign terrorists, the officials said. From Bhat, the police were led to Mir and Rashid Bhat, both active associates of LeT in Srinagar, and during the investigation, following disclosures from those arrested, various hideouts were also busted in forested areas in and around Srinagar.
The two Pakistani terrorists are categorised as ‘A+’ grade militants, and the officials said they infiltrated India approximately 16 years ago and remained active across various districts of the Kashmir Valley, “commanding around 40 foreign terrorists” over the years, most of whom have since been neutralised, the officials said.
“Incriminating” material has been seized from several hideouts in various parts of Srinagar and other cities that included three AK-47 rifles, one AK-Krinkov rifle, pistols, hand grenades, electronic equipment and gadgets, the officials said.
The probe into the ‘Al Falah module’ in November 2025 by the Srinagar police had unravelled a network comprising highly educated professionals, mostly doctors, who had been radicalised to carry out terrorist activities.
One of the accused was the Al Falah University’s Dr Umer-un Nabi, who was driving the explosives-laden car that detonated outside the Red Fort on November 10 last year, killing more than a dozen people. (Agencies)