Sheikh Sajjad Gul masterminded Pahalgam attack: Here's all about his terror trail from Delhi blasts to leading TRF in operations
Sheikh Sajjad Gul, a 50-year-old Kashmiri and head of Lashkar-e-Taiba's proxy group The Resistance Front (TRF), has been identified as the mastermind of the April 22 terror attack in Pahalgam. The attack killed 26 people, mostly tourists, and also claimed the life of a local guide. Officials confirmed on Wednesday that communications traced during the investigation directly link Gul to the planning and execution of the massacre. The TRF had publicly claimed responsibility for the killings.
A History of terror planning
Operating under the alias Sajjad Ahmed Sheikh, Gul is reportedly holed up in Rawalpindi, Pakistan, and is under the patronage of Lashkar-e-Taiba. He has played a major role in several attacks across Jammu and Kashmir between 2020 and 2024. These include targeted killings, grenade attacks in Central Kashmir in 2023, and ambushes such as the Z-Morh Tunnel incident and a police attack in Bijbehra. The National Investigation Agency (NIA) had designated him a terrorist in April 2022 and announced a reward of Rs 10 lakh for information on him.
From lab technician to terror commander
Originally from Srinagar, Gul completed an MBA in Bangalore and pursued a lab technician course in Kerala before returning to Kashmir to run a diagnostic lab. He soon began aiding Lashkar-e-Taiba as an overground worker. In 2002, he was arrested at Delhi's Nizamuddin Railway Station with 5 kilograms of RDX and was sentenced to 10 years in prison for planning serial blasts in Delhi. After his release in 2017, Gul moved to Pakistan, where he was handpicked by the ISI to lead TRF—created post-Pulwama to mask Pakistan's support for cross-border terrorism under a Kashmiri identity.
Family ties to extremism
Officials also revealed that Gul's brother, a former doctor at Srinagar's Shri Maharaja Hari Singh Hospital, was involved in terrorism during the 1990s. He later moved to Saudi Arabia and then to Pakistan, where he now helps fund terror networks along with other fugitives based in Gulf countries.
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