Pakistani Terrorist Found To Have Been Working In Seoul

South Korean police have arrested a Pakistani man in his 40s, employed as a market clerk in Seoul’s Itaewon district, after discovering he was a member of Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) — the terrorist organization behind the 2008 Mumbai attacks.

According to the Gyeonggi Nambu Provincial Police Agency, the man was detained on August 2, 2025, for violating the Act on Counter-Terrorism and the Immigration Act. Authorities say he joined LeT in Pakistan in 2020, receiving weapons and infiltration training before becoming an official member. He entered South Korea in December 2023 using a visa allegedly obtained under false pretenses, posing as a businessman planning to launch a company.

While police say there is no evidence he plotted or carried out terrorist acts in South Korea, his affiliation with LeT constitutes a violation of Article 17 of the Counter-Terrorism Act, which bans any involvement with terrorist groups. The suspect denies the allegations. Investigators are now probing whether he sent funds to the organization.

This is reportedly the first time Korean authorities have apprehended a member of a United Nations-designated terrorist group. LeT, blacklisted by the UN Security Council in 2005 for ties to Al-Qaida, Osama bin Laden, and the Taliban, has financed and supported numerous terrorist activities through its front group Jamaat-ud-Dawa. The organization is linked to several deadly attacks, including the 2008 Mumbai massacre that killed 175 people and a July 2025 assault in India-administered Kashmir that left 26 dead and 20 injured.