Chandigarh : Wanted Khalistani terrorist Paramjit Singh Panjwar was on Saturday shot dead by unidentified gunmen in Lahore, the provincial capital of Pakistan’s Punjab province, the police said.

Panjwar (63) was heading the Khalistan Commando Force-Panjwar group and was designated as a terrorist by India under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act in July 2020. “The gunmen shot Panjwar in his head and he was pronounced dead on arrival at hospital,” a Pakistani police officer said, adding his guard was also injured and succumbed later.

Panjwar along with his guard was walking in a park at Sun Flower Housing Society in Jauhar town of Lahore where he was residing when the two assailants opened fire at them and fled on a motorcycle, the officer said. Pakistan’s intelligence agencies, including the ISI, Military Intelligence and Counter-Terrorism Department (CTD), cordoned off the area and launched an investigation.

The killing is the latest instance of terror kingpins being targeted outside India. In February, Bashir Ahmad Peer, a self-styled commander of the terror outfit Hizbul Mujahideen, was shot dead by unidentified assailants in Pakistan’s Rawalpindi.

In the same month, former commander of Pakistan-based terror outfit Al Badr, Syed Khalid Raza, was killed in a similar manner outside his residence in Karachi while Kashmir-born terrorist, Aijaz Ahmad Ahanger, alias Abu Usman Al-Kashmiri, who had joined the Islamic State (IS), was reportedly killed in February in Kunar province of Afghanistan.

On the deadly attack on Saturday, an eyewitness told the CTD that Panjwar was in the park around 6 am when a gunman came close to them and opened fire. “After the firing, the assailant rushed to the gate of the society and fled along with his accomplice who was waiting for him outside,” he said. A source said the assailants had conducted a recce for a week.

Panjwar had joined the KCF in 1986. In 1986, the KCF was headed by Sukhdev Singh, alias Sukha Shapai, who was then serving as a police constable in Punjab (India). In 1989, Shapai was killed in a police encounter at Tanda in Hoshiarpur and thereafter, Kanwarjit Singh of Sultanwind in Amritsar became the KCF chief while Paramjit Singh Panjwar became its deputy chief. After Kanwarjit’s death, Panjwar became the KCF chief.

Before he escaped to Pakistan in 1995-96, Panjwar was involved in a number of killings in Punjab, according to official sources. Though he was inactive for the last couple of years, Panjwar had been operating from Lahore and was involved in arranging arms training for youths in Pakistan. He was engaged in supplying arms and ammunition and subsequent infiltration into India for targeting VIPs and economic installations.

“Panjwar’s complicity in promoting drug trade and fake Indian currency notes (FICN) operation in Punjab are well documented. Efforts are being made by his organisation KCF to reactive former militants, sleeper cells and also those on bail and it has been in favour of forming a nexus with other forces hostile to India,” the ministry had said.

The KCF came into existence in February 1986 and the modus operandi of this organisation was to commit bank robberies and kidnappings for ransom for use to purchase sophisticated weapons for terrorist activities. The banned outfit was involved in various terrorist attacks in India, which included a bomb attack in October 1988, killing 10 Rai Sikhs in Ferozepur and the killing of Major Gen BN Kumar, according to the ministry.

Panjwar was also behind a number of IED explosions in Haryana, Chandigarh and Punjab, said sources. His wife, who along with two sons was staying in Germany, died in September 2022.