Hamza Burhan, accused of masterminding the 2019 Pulwama terror attack that left 40 CRPF personnel dead, was shot dead by unidentified gunmen in Muzaffarabad in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK), his family confirmed on Thursday.

An Al-Badr commander carrying the alias of ‘Doctor’ apart from Hamza, Arjumand Gulzar Dar succumbed to multiple bullets armed assailants fired at him, reports suggested. 

A video doing the rounds on social media, which is still to be authenticated by the law enforcement agencies here, showed him travelling in a white car when armed men got down from a bike and came close to open fire at him.

He is alleged to have provided explosives and grenades to the Jaish-e-Muhammad (JeM) terrorists who rammed an explosive-laden car into a convoy of CRPF personnel, killing 40 of them in one of the most daring attacks on security forces in Jammu and Kashmir.

Police officials in Srinagar said Hamza, a native of Pulwama, had travelled to Pakistan in 2018 on an Indian passport to pursue medical studies. However, he later joined the terror outfit Al-Badar and operated from there.

Gulzar Ahmad, his father, said on Thursday various agencies had informed him that his son, Hamza, was killed in Muzaffarabad.

He was designated as a terrorist by the Union Home Ministry in 2022 following his involvement in the Pulwama terror strike.

Ahmad said his son had travelled to Pakistan on January 28, 2018, on an Indian passport to pursue an MBBS degree. He said Indian agencies later questioned the family about his stay there and urged that he be brought back.

“I assured every agency that as soon as he returned, I would hand him over to them,” Ahmad said.

He said the family later lost contact with Hamza after he “chose the wrong path”.

Ahmad said the episode brought severe hardship to the family. “The careers of my two sons were ruined because of it,” he added.

According to police officials, he returned to Kashmir later and had indulged in radicalising youth at the best of his terror masters and the ISI, with his network spanning from Pulwama to Shopian.

He is not the lone terrorist who fell to mysterious assassins in Pakistan. Another Pulwama wanted terrorist, Shahid Latif, was gunned down inside a mosque in Sialkot, Pakistan, in October 2023. 

Latif, a senior Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) commander, was a key conspirator in the case having provided logistical support for the Pulwama and 2016 Pathankot airbase attacks.

Published on May 21, 2026