Ilyas Kashmiri's Real Name: Mohammad Ilyas Kashmiri

Quick answer: Ilyas Kashmiri appears in United Nations and U.S. government records as Mohammad Ilyas Kashmiri, also spelled Muhammad Ilyas Kashmiri. He was born in 1964 in Pakistan-administered Kashmir. The U.S. and the UN designated him as the commander of the militant group Harakat-ul Jihad Islami (HUJI), which supported al-Qaida. BBC News and Reuters reported that he was killed in a U.S. drone strike in Pakistan's South Waziristan region on the night of June 3, 2011 (UN Security Council; U.S. Department of State).

Real name and early life

The UN Security Council's al-Qaida sanctions list entry, as published in a 2012 UN press release, gives his name as "Mohammad Ilyas Kashmiri," with the Urdu-script form محمد الیاس کشمیری. It lists two possible birth dates, January 2, 1964, or February 10, 1964. His place of birth is given as Bhimber, in the Samahni Valley of Pakistan-administered Kashmir. The entry records "Muhammad Ilyas Kashmiri" as a good-quality alias, and "Elias al-Kashmiri" and "Ilyas, Naib Amir" as low-quality aliases.

A 2011 State Department notice similarly says he "was born in 1964 in Pakistan-administered Kashmir." It lists the aliases Muhammad Ilyas Kashmiri, Elias al-Kashmiri, Ilyas, Naib Amir, and "Commando Commander." The name Kashmiri is the Urdu word for "of Kashmir," matching the region of his birth.

Career highlights

Designations and legal record

On August 6, 2010, the U.S. Treasury designated him a Specially Designated Global Terrorist, and the State Department designated HUJI a Foreign Terrorist Organization. The UN added him to its al-Qaida sanctions list the same day. The State Department said a U.S. federal grand jury had indicted him in January 2010 on terrorism-related charges connected to a plot against the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten. In April 2011 the State Department offered a reward of up to $5 million for information on his location.

BBC News described him as a key commander in al-Qaeda whom the U.S. blamed for organizing attacks in Afghanistan, Pakistan, and India. Those accusations were never tested in court.

Reported death

BBC News reported on June 4, 2011, that officials confirmed local accounts that Kashmiri had died in an overnight U.S. drone strike in South Waziristan. Reuters, citing an intelligence official, reported the same. The BBC noted that independent verification of drone-strike deaths was "almost impossible." It also noted that Pakistani officials had wrongly reported his death once before, in 2009. The UN sanctions entry later listed him as "reportedly deceased in Pakistan," giving the date as June 11, 2011, while news reports place the strike on June 3–4.

Name notes for searchers

His full recorded name is Mohammad Ilyas Kashmiri. Mohammad and Muhammad are alternate spellings, and Elias is an English-style form of Ilyas. Mufti and Maulana are religious titles, not part of his name.