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Lashkar-e-Taiba (Urdu: لشکرطیبہ; literally Army of the Good, translated as Army of the Righteous, or Army of the Pure) – also transliterated as Lashkar-i-Tayyaba, Lashkar-e-Tayyaba, Lashkar-e-Tayyiba, Lashkar-i-Taiba, Lashkar Taiba or LeT – is one of the largest and most active militant Islamist terrorist organizations in South Asia, operating mainly from Pakistan. It was founded by Hafiz Muhammad Saeed, Abdullah Yusuf Azzam and Zafar Iqbal in Afghanistan. With its headquarters based in Muridke, near Lahore in Punjab province of Pakistan, the group operates several training camps in Pakistan administered Kashmir. Lashkar - e - Taiba has attacked civilian and military targets in
India, most notably the 2001 Indian Parliament attack and the 2008
Mumbai attacks. Its stated objective is to introduce an Islamic state in
South Asia and to "liberate" Muslims residing in Indian Kashmir. The organization is banned as a terrorist organization by India, Pakistan, the United States, the United Kingdom, the European Union, Russia and Australia.
Some experts such as former French investigating magistrate Jean -
Louis Bruguière and New America Foundation president Steve Coll
believe that Pakistan's main intelligence agency, the Inter - Services
Intelligence (ISI), continues to give LeT intelligence help and
protection. While the primary area of operations of the their militant activities is the Kashmir valley, their professed goal is not limited to challenging India's sovereignty over Jammu and Kashmir. LeT sees the issue of Kashmir as part of a wider global struggle. The group has repeatedly claimed through its journals and websites that its main aim is to destroy the Indian republic and to annihilate Hinduism and Judaism. LeT has declared Hindus and Jews to be the "enemies of Islam", as well as India and Israel to be the "enemies of Pakistan". In a pamphlet entitled "Why Are We Waging Jihad?" the group defined its agenda as the restoration of Islamic rule over all parts of India and declared India, Israel and the United States as existential enemies of Islam. The LeT believes that violent jihad is the duty of all Muslims and must be waged until eight objectives are met: ending persecution against Muslims, establishing Islam as the dominant way of life in the world, forcing infidels to pay jizya, fighting for the weak and feeble against oppressors, exacting revenge for killed Muslims, punishing enemies for violating oaths and treaties, defending all Muslim states, and recapturing occupied Muslim territory. In the wake of the November 2008 Mumbai attacks, investigations of computer and email accounts revealed a list of 320 locations worldwide deemed as possible targets for attack. Only 20 of the targets were locations within India. Analysts believed that the list was a statement of intent rather than a list of locations where LeT cells had been established and were ready to strike. In January 2009 the LeT publicly declared that it would pursue a
peaceful resolution in the Kashmir issue and that it did not have global
jihadist aims, but the group is still believed to be active in several
other spheres of anti - Indian terrorism.
In 1985, Hafiz Mohammed Saeed and Zafar Iqbal formed the Jamaat - ud - Dawa (Organization for Preaching, or JuD) as a small missionary group dedicated to promoting an Ahl - e - Hadith version of Islam. In the next year, Zaki-ur Rehman Lakvi merged his group of anti - Soviet jihadists with the JuD to form the Markaz-ud Dawa - wal - Irshad (Center for Preaching and Guidance, or MDI). The MDI had 17 founders originally, and notable among them was Abdullah Azzam. The LeT was formed in Afghanistan's Kunar province in 1990 and gained prominence in the early 1990s as a military offshoot of MDI. MDI's primary concerns were dawah and the LeT focused on jihad although the members did not distinguish between the two groups' functions. According to Hafiz Saeed, "Islam propounds both dawa[h] and jihad. Both are equally important and inseparable. Since our life revolves around Islam, therefore both dawa and jihad are essential; we cannot prefer one over the other." Most of the training camps were located in North - West Frontier
Province (NWFP) and many were shifted to Azad Kashmir for the sole
purpose of training volunteers for the Kashmir Jihad. From
1991 onwards, militancy surged in Indian Kashmir, as many
Lashkar - e - Taiba volunteers were infiltrated into Indian Kashmir from
Azad Kashmir with the help of the Pakistan Army and ISI. As of 2010, the degree of control that Pakistani intelligence retains over LeT’s operations is not known. Lashkar - e - Taiba had links to Jama'at - ud - Da'wah, however Jama'at - ud - Da'wah publicly retracted any association with them after the United States Department of State declared Lashkar - e - Taiba to be a terrorist organization. On March 28, 2001, in Statutory Instrument 2001 No. 1261, British Home Secretary Jack Straw designated the group a Proscribed Terrorist Organization under the Terrorism Act 2000. On December 5, 2001, the group was added to the Terrorist Exclusion List. In a notification dated December 26, 2001, United States Secretary of State Colin Powell, designated Lashkar - e - Taiba a Foreign Terrorist Organization. Lashkar - e - Taiba was banned in Pakistan on January 12, 2002. It is banned in India as a designated terrorist group under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act. It was listed as a terrorist organization in Australia under the Security Legislation Amendment (Terrorism) Act 2002 on 11 April 2003 and was re-listed 11 April 2005 and 31 March 2007. On 2 May 2008 it was placed on the Consolidated List established and
maintained by the Committee established by the United Nations Security
Council Resolution 1267 as an entity associated with al-Qaeda. The
report also proscribed Jamaat - ud - Dawa as a front group of the LeT. According to a media report, the U.S. accused JuD of being the front group for the prime suspects of the November 2008 Mumbai attacks, the Lashkar - e - Taiba, the organization that trained the 10 gunmen involved in these attacks. On December 7, 2008, under pressure from USA and India, Pakistani army launched an operation against LeT and raided a markaz (center) of the LeT at Shawai Nullah, 5 km from Muzaffarabad in Pakistan controlled Azad Kashmir. The army arrested more than twenty members of the Lashkar - e - Taiba and Zaki - ur - Rehman Lakhvi, the alleged mastermind of the November 2008 Mumbai attacks. They are said to have sealed off the center, which included a madrasah and a mosque alongside offices of the LeT according to the government of Pakistan. On December 10, 2008 India formally requested the United Nations Security Council to designate JuD as a terrorist organization. Subsequently, Pakistan's ambassador to the United Nations Abdullah Hussain gave an undertaking, saying,
A similar assurance was given by Pakistan in 2002 when it clamped down on the LeT; however, the LeT was covertly allowed to function under the guide of the JuD. While arrests have been made, the Pakistani Government has categorically refused to allow any foreign investigators access to Hafiz Saeed. On December 11, 2008 the United Nations Security Council imposed sanctions on JuD, declaring it a global terrorist group. Hafiz Muhammad Saeed, the chief of JuD declared that his group will challenge the sanctions imposed on it in all forums. Pakistan's government also banned the JuD on the same day and issued an order to seal the JuD in all four provinces, as well as Pakistan controlled Kashmir. Before the ban JuD ran a weekly newspaper named Ghazwah, two monthly magazines called Majalla Tud Dawaa and Zarb e Taiba, and a fortnightly magazine for children, Nanhe Mujahid. The publications have since been banned by the Pakistani government. In addition to the prohibition of JuD's print publications, the organization's websites were also shut down by the Pakistani government. After the ban imposed by UNSC, Hindu minority groups in Pakistan came out in support of JuD. At protest marches in Hyderabad, Hindu groups said that JuD does charity work such as setting up water wells in desert regions and providing food to the poor. However, the credibility of the level of support during the protest is questionable. Several protesters claim to have been under the impression they were protesting price rises. The BBC reported that protesters on their way to what they believed was a rally against price rises were handed signs in support of JuD. The organizations' banning has been met with heavy criticism in many Pakistani circles, which include many Christians and Hindus, as JuD was the first to react to the Kashmir earthquake and the Ziarat Earthquake. It also ran over 160 schools with thousands of students and provided aid in hospitals as well. In January 2009 the JuD spokesperson, Abdullah Muntazir, stressed that the group did not have global jihadist aspirations and would welcome a peaceful resolution of the Kashmir issue. He also publicly disowned LeT commanders Zaki - ur - Rehman Lakhvi and Zarrar Shah, who have both been accused of being the masterminds behind the November 2008 Mumbai attacks. In response to the UN resolution and the government ban, the JuD
reorganized itself under the name of Tehrik - e - Tahafuz Qibla Awal (TTQA). The group conducts training camps and humanitarian work. Across Pakistan, the organization runs 16 Islamic institutions, 135 secondary schools, an ambulance service, mobile clinics, blood banks and seminaries according to the South Asia Terrorism Portal. The group actively carried out attacks on Indian Armed Forces in Kashmir and Jammu. Some breakaway Lashkar members have been accused of carrying out
attacks in Pakistan, particularly in Karachi, to mark its opposition to
the policies of former President Pervez Musharraf. The Lashkar - e - Taiba training camps are presently located at a number of locations in Pakistan. These camps, which include its base camp, Markaz - e - Taiba in Muridke near Lahore and the one near Manshera, are used to impart training to militants. In these camps, the following trainings are imparted:
These camps have long been tolerated by the Pakistan's powerful Inter - Services Intelligence (ISI) agency because of their usefulness against India and in Afghanistan although they have been instructed not to mount any operations for now. A French anti - terrorism expert, Jean - Louis Bruguière, in his Some Things that I Wasn’t Able to Say has stated that the regular Pakistani army officers trained the militants in the LeT training camps till recently. He reached to this conclusion after interrogating a French militant, Willy Brigitte, who had been trained by the LeT and arrested in Australia in 2003.
The LeT base camp Markaz - e - Taiba in Muridke, about 30 km
from Lahore, was established in 1988. It is spread over 200 acres
(0.81 km2) of land and contains a madrassa, hospital,
market, residences, a fish farm and agricultural tracts. The initial
sectarian religious training, Daura - e - Sufa is imparted here to the militants.
Markaz - e - Taiba is now under the direct control of the Punjab government after the Mumbai
attacks.Khaqan Babur was appointed administrator of Markaz - e - Taiba by
the provincial government. In 1987, LeT established two training camps in Afghanistan. The first one was the Muaskar - e - Taiba at Jaji in Paktia Province and the second one was the Muaskar - e - Aqsa in Kunar Province. American intelligence analysts justify the extrajudicial detention of at least one Guantanamo detainees because they allege he attended a Lashkar - e - Taiba training camp in Afghanistan. A memorandum summarizing the factors for and against the continued detention of Bader Al Bakri Al Samiri asserts that he attended a Lashkar - e - Taiba training camp. Mariam Abou Zahab and Olivier Roy in their Islamist Networks: The Afghan - Pakistan Connection mentioned about three training camps in Pakistan administered Kashmir,
the principal one is the Umm - al - Qura training camp at Muzaffarabad.
Every month five hundred militants are trained in these camps. Muhammad
Amir Rana in his A to Z of Jehadi Organizations in Pakistan listed five training camps. Four of them, the
Muaskar - e - Taiba, the Muaskar - e - Aqsa, the Muaskar Umm - al - Qura and the
Muaskar Abdullah bin Masood are in Pakistan administered Kashmir
and the Markaz Mohammed bin Qasim training camp is in Sanghar District
of Sindh. Ten thousand militants had been trained in these camps till
2004. Pakistan began to fund the LeT during the early 1990s and by around 1995 the funding had grown considerably. During this time the army and the ISI helped establish the LeT's military structure with the specific intent to use the militant group against India. The LeT also obtained funds through efforts of the MDI's Department of Finance. Until 2002 the group collected funds through public fundraising events usually using charity boxes in shops and mosques. The group also received money through donations at MDI offices, through personal donations collected at public celebrations of an operative's martyrdom, and through its website. The outfit also collected donations from the Pakistani immigrant community in the Persian Gulf and United Kingdom, Islamic Non - Governmental Organizations, and Pakistani and Kashmiri businessmen. Lashkar - e - Taiba operatives have also been apprehended in India, where they had been obtaining funds from sections of the Muslim Community. Although many of the funds collected went towards legitimate uses,
e.g., factories and other businesses, a significant portion was dedicated
to military activities. According to U.S. intelligence, the LeT had a
military budget of more than $5 million by 2009. LeT assisted victims after the 2005 Kashmir earthquake. In many instances, they were the first on the scene, arriving before the army or other civilians. A large amount of funds collected among the Pakistani expatriate
community in Britain to aid victims of the earthquake were funneled for
the activities of Lashkar - e - Taiba although the donors were unaware.
About £5
million were collected, but more than half of the funds were directed
towards LeT rather than towards relief efforts. Intelligence officials
stated that some of the funds were used to prepare for an attack that
would have detonated explosives on board transatlantic airflights.
Other investigations also indicated the aid given for earthquake
victims was directly involved to expand Lashkar - e - Taiba's activities
within India.
LeT attacks have increased tensions in the already contentious relationship between India and Pakistan. Part of the LeT strategy may be to deflect the attention of Pakistan's military away from the tribal areas and towards its border with India. Attacks in India also aim to exacerbate tensions between India's Hindu and Muslim communities and help LeT recruitment strategies in India. LeT cadres have also been arrested in different cities of India. On
May 27, a LeT militant was arrested from Hajipur in Gujarat. On August
15, 2001, a LeT militant was arrested from Bhatinda in Punjab. The ISI have provided financial and material support to the group. According to the declaration of LeT operatives, the Pakistan Army from its 12th Infantry Division based in Azad Kashmir aids members of the outfit in their infiltration, extraction and clashes with Indian security forces around the Line of Control (LoC) by providing covering fire. The LeT was also reported to have been directed by the Inter - Services Intelligence (ISI) to widen its network in the Jammu region where a considerable section of the populace comprised Punjabis. The LeT has a large number of activists who hail from Pakistani Punjab and can thus effectively penetrate into Jammu society. A December 13, 2001 news report cited a LeT spokesperson as saying that the outfit wanted to avoid a clash with the Pakistani government. He claimed a clash was possible because of the suddenly conflicting interests of the government and of the militant outfits active in Jammu and Kashmir even though the government had been an ardent supporter of Muslim freedom movements, particularly that of Kashmir. Pakistan denies giving orders to Lashkar - e - Taiba's activities.
However, the Indian government and many non - governmental think tanks
allege that the Pakistani ISI is involved with the group.
The situation with LeT causes considerable strain in Indo - Pakistani
relations, which are already mired in suspicion and mutual distrust. The Lashkar - e - Taiba was created to participate in the Mujahideen conflict against the Najibullah regime in Afghanistan. In the process, the outfit developed deep linkages with Afghanistan and has several Afghan nationals in its cadre. The outfit had also cultivated links with the former Taliban regime in Afghanistan and also with Osama bin Laden and his Al Qaeda network. Even while refraining from openly displaying these links, the LeT office in Muridke was reportedly used as a transit camp for third country recruits heading for Afghanistan. Guantanamo detainee Khalid Bin Abdullah Mishal Thamer Al Hameydani's Combatant Status Review Tribunal said that he had received training via Lashkar - e - Taiba. The Combatant Status Review Tribunals of Taj Mohammed and Rafiq Bin Bashir Bin Jalud Al Hami, and the Administrative Review Board hearing of Abdullah Mujahid and Zia Ul Shah allege that they too were members or former members of Lashkar - e - Taiba.
While the primary focus for the Lashkar is the operations in
Indian
Kashmir, it has frequently provided support to other international
terrorist groups. Primary among these is the Al-Qaeda Network in
Afghanistan. LeT members also have been reported to have engaged in
conflicts in the Philippines, Bosnia, the Middle East and Chechnya.
There are also allegations that members of the Liberation Tigers of
Tamil Eelam conducted arms transfers and made deals with LeT in the
early 1990s.
The Lashkar is reported to have conducted several of its major operations in tandem with the Hizb - ul - Mujahideen.
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