The Union Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) on Wednesday (September 30, 2026) said that with the killing of a Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) commander in Jammu and Kashmir’s Budgam district in an operation that started on Tuesday (September 29, 2026), all four senior LeT commanders who had been operating in the Union Territory since 2022 are dead.

According to the MHA, the LeT commander, identified by the Army as Mohammad Asif alias Hashim Moosa, was killed in an intelligence-led joint operation by security forces at Gurwatkalan in the Khansahib area of Budgam district. The Ministry said security agencies had been pursuing him for a long time and recently put in place a specific multi-agency plan for his “neutralisation” after receiving technical and human intelligence inputs regarding his movements and presence.

The MHA described Moosa’s killing as a major blow to the LeT ecosystem in Jammu and Kashmir. It said that with his death, the entire four-member group of senior LeT commanders active in J&K since 2022 has been dismantled.

The Ministry said the group was responsible for several major attacks, including the Halan attack in August 2023, the Kandi attack in May 2023, the DKG attack in December 2023, the Shahsitar attack in May 2024, the Shiv Khori attack in June 2024, the Gagangir attack in October 2024, the Bootapathri attack in October 2024, and the Baisaran attack in April 2025.

The others

Suleman, one of these four commanders, was involved in the terror attack at the Baisaran meadow of Pahalgam on April 22, 2025, when 25 tourists and a local man were killed. Suleman was later killed during Operation Mahadev, along with two other Pakistani terrorists, on July 28, 2025. 

Apart from Moosa and Suleman, two other LeT commanders who operated in J&K were also killed in separate operations, the MHA said. Junaid Bhat was killed in an encounter at Dachigam on December 3, 2024, and Yasir was killed in Operation Asdhar on September 4, 2026.

The Ministry said the operation against Moosa was part of a sustained counter-terrorism campaign and reflected the close coordination among the Jammu and Kashmir Police, the Indian Army and the Central Armed Police Forces.

“Over the past few years, all security agencies have been conducting counter-terrorism operations in close coordination, yielding positive results,” the MHA said.