Sheikh Sajjad Gul, also known as Sajjad Ahmed Sheikh, has been identified as the principal mastermind behind the April 22, 2025, Pahalgam terror attack in Jammu and Kashmir, which resulted in the deaths of 26 people, mostly tourists. Gul, a 50-year-old Kashmiri, currently heads The Resistance Front (TRF), a proxy outfit of Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), and is reportedly hiding in Rawalpindi, Pakistan, under LeT’s protection.

Gul’s background reveals a trajectory from higher education in India to deep involvement in terrorism. He was educated in Srinagar, completed an MBA in Bangalore, and pursued a lab technician course in Kerala.

Upon returning to Kashmir, he established a diagnostic laboratory, which he allegedly used to provide logistical support to terror groups.

His initial activities as an overground worker for LeT led to his arrest by Delhi Police’s Special Cell in 2002 at Nizamuddin Railway Station, where he was found with 5 kg of RDX. He was convicted and sentenced to 10 years in prison in 2003 for planning bombings in the national capital.

After his release in 2017, Gul moved to Pakistan. There, Pakistan’s intelligence agency, ISI, appointed him to lead the TRF in 2019. This was a strategic move by Pakistan to project an indigenous Kashmiri front for militancy in Jammu and Kashmir, especially after the global backlash following the 2019 Pulwama attack. Under Gul’s leadership, TRF has been linked to numerous violent incidents, including targeted killings in Central and South Kashmir between 2020 and 2024, grenade attacks in Central Kashmir in 2023, and ambushes on police personnel in Bijbehra, Gagangir, and the Z-Morh Tunnel in Ganderbal.

The investigation into the Pahalgam attack traced communication links back to Gul, confirming his role in orchestrating the massacre. The TRF, which claimed responsibility for the attack, reportedly acted on his direct orders. During the incident, terrorists interrogated tourists about their religion before shooting 25 of them at point-blank range; a local guide who tried to intervene was also killed. Indian authorities have designated Gul a terrorist since April 2022, with a bounty of ₹10 lakh on his head.

Gul’s connections with Pakistan’s ISI have made him a key asset, serving as a Kashmiri face for the predominantly Punjabi-led LeT. His family also has a history of militancy: his brother, a former doctor in Srinagar, was involved in terrorism in the 1990s, later fleeing to Saudi Arabia and Pakistan, where he is now reportedly engaged in terror financing with other fugitives based in the Gulf.

Sheikh Sajjad Gul’s journey from a student in India to the mastermind of a major terror attack underscores the complex nexus of education, cross-border terrorism, and proxy warfare in the region. His activities, protection in Pakistan, and links to ISI and LeT highlight the persistent challenge of state-sponsored terrorism faced by India.

Agencies