| Lashkar-e-Taiba |
|
|---|---|
| Operational | 1991 - Present |
| Led by | Hafiz Muhammad Saeed |
| Objectives | Independence of Jammu and Kashmir from India, pan-South Asian Islamic influence |
| Active region(s) | India, Pakistan, Afghanistan |
| Ideology | Islamism, Islamic fundamentalism, Pan-Islamism, Kashmiri Independence |
| Major actions | Suicide attacks, massacre of civilians, attacks on security forces |
| Notable attacks | Jammu & Kashmir attacks; November 2008 Mumbai attacks (attributed to LeT members) |
| Status | Designated U.S. State Department list of Foreign Terrorist Organization by U.S. (26 Dec 2001); Banned in U.K. (2001); Banned in Pakistan (2002); Related Jama'at-ud-Da'wah (JUD) party banned by U.S. (2006), sanctioned by the U.N. (2008) |
Lashkar-e-Taiba (Urdu: لشکرطیبہ laškar-ĕ ṯayyiba; 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, or LeT — is one of the largest and most active terrorist organizations in South Asia. It was founded by Hafiz Muhammad Saeed and Zafar Iqbal[1][2] in the Kunar province of Afghanistan, and is currently based near Lahore, Pakistan operating several training camps in Pakistan-administered Kashmir.[3] Lashkar-e-Taiba members have carried out major attacks against India and its objective is to introduce an Islamic state in South Asia and to "liberate" Muslims residing in Indian administered Kashmir.[2][4] Some breakaway Lashkar members have also been accused of carrying out attacks in Pakistan, particularly in Karachi, to mark its opposition to the policies of President Pervez Musharraf.[5] The organization is banned as a terrorist organization by India, Pakistan, the United States,[6] the United Kingdom,[7] the European Union,[8] Russia[9] and Australia.[10] U.S. intelligence officials believe that Pakistan's intelligence agency ISI continues giving it intelligence help and protection.[11]
Contents |
| Organizations listed as terrorist groups by India |
|---|
| Northeastern India |
| National Socialist Council of Nagaland-Isak-Muivah (NSCN-IM) Naga National Council-Federal (NNCF) National Council of Nagaland-Khaplang United Liberation Front of Asom People's Liberation Army Kanglei Yawol Kanna Lup (KYKL) Zomi Revolutionary Front |
| North India |
| Babbar Khalsa Bhindranwala Tigers Force of Khalistan Communist Party of India (Maoist) Dashmesh Regiment International Sikh Youth Federation (ISYF) Kamagata Maru Dal of Khalistan Khalistan Armed Force Khalistan Liberation Force Khalistan Commando Force Khalistan Liberation Army Khalistan Liberation Front Khalistan Liberation Organisation Khalistan National Army Khalistan Guerilla Force Khalistan Security Force |
| Kashmir |
| Lashkar-e-Toiba Jaish-e-Mohammed Hizbul Mujahideen Harkat-ul-Mujahideen Farzandan-e-Milat United Jihad Council Al-Qaeda Students Islamic Movement of India |
| Central India |
| People's war group Balbir militias Naxals Ranvir Sena |
It is helped by Pakistan. The LeT's professed ideology goes beyond merely challenging India's sovereignty over the State of Jammu and Kashmir. The Lashkar's agenda, as outlined in a pamphlet titled "Why are we waging jihad", includes the restoration of Islamic rule over all parts of South Asia, Russia and even China. Further, the outfit is based on a sort of Islamist fundamentalism preached by its mentor, the JuD. It seeks to bring about a union of all Muslim majority regions in countries that surround Pakistan.[2] In its history the organisation has shown scant respect for human life and has carried out violent activities. Organizations like the LeT have been used to absorb the resilient remnants of the Taliban and Al Qaeda operatives in the region.[12]
The outfit had claimed that it had assisted the Taliban militia and Osama bin Laden's Al-Qaeda network in Afghanistan during November and December 2002 in their fight against the US-aided Northern Alliance.[12]
|
|
This article may need to be wikified to meet Wikipedia's quality standards. Please help by adding relevant internal links, or by improving the article's layout. (December 2008) |
Jamaat-ud-Dawa runs a chain of schools and medical clinics and has helped survivors of two deadly earthquakes in recent years. The charity's leader, Saeed, repeated his group's denial of links to Lashkar. No Lashkar-e-Taiba man is in Jamaat-ud-Dawa and I have never been a chief of Lashkar-e-Taiba,'[14]
UN has declared Terrorist a dead person
Haji Muhammad Ashraf, finance secretary of JuD and number two in LeT, had died six years ago in Hyderabad (in Pakistan) and was buried in Golarchi, claimed Geo TV channel. Ashraf was arrested twice during former president Pervez Musharraf’s regime. He was detained in Mandi Jail of Hyderabad. During his second term of detention, he became seriously ill and was shifted to Civil Hospital, Hyderabad, where he died on June 11, 2002. [19]
Until 2002 the group collected funds through public fundraising events,[20] usually using charity boxes in shops and mosques. They assisted victims after the 2005 Kashmir earthquake. In many instances, they were the first on the scene, arriving before the army or other civilians.[21]
A large amount of funds collected for charities within Europe, mostly by misleading the Pakistani-Muslim community in Britain, are funneled for the activities of Lashkar-e-Taiba.[22] There have been countless investigations indicating the aid given for earthquake victims was directly involved to expand Lashkar-e-Taiba's activities within India.[23] Lashkar-e-Taiba operatives have been apprehended in India, where they have been obtaining funds from sections of the Muslim Community.[24] The outfit also collects donations from the Pakistani immigrant community in the Persian Gulf and United Kingdom, Islamic Non-Governmental Organisations, and Pakistani and Kashmiri businessmen.[12]
The group actively carries out attacks on Indian Armed Forces in Kashmir and Jammu and still operates in the jungles in Pakistan. It is considered a well-trained group.[12]
The Lashkar-e-Taiba 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".[25]
The group reportedly conducts training camps and humanitarian work with regards to the earthquake. These camps have long been trained by the Pakistan's powerful Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) agency because of their usefulness against India and in Afghanistan, though they have reportedly been told not to mount any operations for now.[26] 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 organisation.
Several American Muslims, including members of the so-called "Virginia Jihad Network," were convicted of training at LeT camps in Kashmir and Pakistan.[27]
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.[28][29]
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 Organisation.
It is banned in India as a designated terrorist group under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act.[30]
It was listed as a terrorist organisation 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.[31]
On 2 May it was placed on the Consolidated List established and maintained by the Committee established by United Nations Security Council Resolution 1267 as an entity associated with al-Qaeda.
Lashkar-e-Taiba was banned in Pakistan on January 12, 2002.[32]
Compared to other groups in J&K, the LeT has commanded significant attention primarily due to two reasons. First, for its well planned and executed attacks on security force (SF) targets in the State and second, for the dramatic massacres of non-Muslim civilians. After the Kargil War of May-July 1999, (when Pakistani troops and insurgents, including those of the Lashkar, were forced to withdraw from peaks on the Indian side of the Line of Control - LoC), the outfit launched its 'suicide attacks' strategy whereby small groups (2-5 members) of fidayeen (suicide squads) would storm a security force camp or base.[12] In another frequently used strategy, groups of Lashkar insurgents, dressed in SF fatigues, would arrive at remote hill villages, round up Hindu or Sikh civilians, and massacre them.[12] These two strategies have been designed to achieve maximum publicity and extract public allegiance, mainly out of fear. On December 8, 2001, two LeT fidayeen managed to penetrate inside a security force convoy and opened fire killing one personnel. They were able to generate adequate confusion to escape from the convoy after the attack but were later killed in an encounter with another SF unit.[citation needed]
In some fidayeen attacks launched by the LeT, the fighters entrenched themselves inside the camp, killing as many SF personnel as they could, before they were themselves killed. In one such instance, two Lashkar fidayeen stormed an SF base at Wazir Bagh in Srinagar, on March 26, 2001, and shot dead four personnel before being killed. In certain incidents, members of the squad are reported to have successfully fled after the initial attack. Such was the case at Mendhar in Rajouri district, on December 16, 2000 as also at Mahore, Udhampur district, on November 5, 2000.[citation needed]
The Lashkar-e-Taiba, according to a news report[citation needed] of December 17, 2001, was responsible for 35 of the 42 such suicide attacks carried out since 1999. More than the number of casualties of the security forces, it is the psychological impact of these attacks that has led to the Lashkar gaining widespread attention.[citation needed]
LeT cadres, unlike other terrorists, are known to prefer death in an encounter with the security forces rather than be arrested.[citation needed] For instance, in 1997, the largest group of terrorists killed in clashes with the security forces belonged to the Lashkar-e-Taiba.[clarification needed] Majority of the massacres of unarmed Hindus and Sikhs between March 1997 and October 2001 have reportedly been carried out by the LeT.[12] One instance is the murder of 23 persons in Wandhama on January 23, 1988.[citation needed] A second instance is the June 19, 1998, massacre in which 25 members of a wedding party in Doda, Jammu were killed.[citation needed] The extreme level of brutality, which sets Lashkar-e-Taiba apart from other rebel outfits that operated in Kashmir before,[citation needed] is evident in the Wandhama massacre, where children as young as one year old were killed along with women and defenseless men.
Pakistan denies giving orders to Lashkar-e-Taiba's activities. However, the Indian government and many non-governmental think-tanks allege that the Pakistani Inter-Services Intelligence is involved with the group.[12] The situation with LeT causes considerable strain in Indo-Pakistani relations, which are already mired in suspicion and mutual distrust.
While the primary area of operations of the Lashkar-e-Taiba’s terrorist activities is the Kashmir valley, the outfit is also active in the Jammu region besides having undertaken isolated attacks in other parts of India. The Lashkar is reported to have conducted several of its major operations in tandem with the Hizb-ul-Mujahideen. The Kashmiri cadre of the Hizb-ul-Mujahideen provides vital knowledge of the ground conditions in the target zone, while the highly trained and motivated LeT insurgents undertake the attack.
The LeT was also reported to have been directed by the 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.[33]
News reports, citing security forces, said that the latter suspect that in the December 13, 2001 attack on India’s Parliament in New Delhi, a joint group from the LeT and the Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) were involved. The attack precipitated the 2001-2002 India-Pakistan standoff. The LeT was also held responsible by the government for the December 23, 2000 attack in Red Fort,[34] New Delhi. LeT confirmed its participation in the Red Fort attack and its involvement in the Parliament attack.
LeT cadres have also been arrested from 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 LeT has also built contacts with other Islamist militant outfits active in India. An arrested activist of the proscribed Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI), is reported to have confessed during interrogation on August 21, 2001, that two LeT militant had held discussions with SIMI’s Malegaon unit in Mumbai on August 6, 2001 to carry out subversive activities in the State of Maharashtra.
Links with other Terrorist outfits 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.[35] A news report in the aftermath of the September 11 attacks in the U.S. has indicated that the outfit provides individuals for the outer circle of bin Laden’s personal security. The LeT maintains ties to various religious/military terror groups around the world, ranging from the Philippines to the Middle East and Chechnya primarily through the MDI fraternal network.
External Fund Sources:
The outfit collects donations from the Pakistani community in the Persian Gulf and United Kingdom, Islamic Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs), and Pakistani and Kashmiri businessmen.[36] Reports also indicate that the LeT receives considerable financial, material and other forms of assistance from the Pakistan government, routed primarily through the ISI.[37] Pakistan’s security agencies are reported to be providing training to the outfit. A December 13, 2001 news report cited a LeT spokesperson as saying that the outfit wanted to avoid a clash with the Pakistani Government.[38] He claimed, even though the government has been an ardent supporter of all Muslim freedom movements, particularly that of Kashmir, in the present conditions a clash was possible because of the sudden wedge that appeared between the interests of the government and those of militant outfits active in Jammu and Kashmir.
According to the declaration of LeT operatives, the Pakistan Army, particularly in the borders with India (the International Border and the Line of Control - LoC) aids members of the outfit in their infiltration, extraction and clashes with Indian security forces near the borders by providing covering fire.[39].
Support to Foreign Terror Outfits in Pakistan While the primary focus for the Lashkar is the operations in Indian Kashmir , it has frequently provided support to other international terrorist outfits. Primary among these is the Al-Qaeda Network in Afghanistan. Lashkar operatives have been known to have participated in terrorist operations in Afghanistan and several other regions. A leading Al-Qaeda operative Abu-Zubayadah[1] who was the operational chief of Al-Qaeda after the death of Mohammed Atef was caught in a Lashkar safehouse at Faislabad in Pakistan.[2] The Markaz campus at Muridke in Lahore, its headquarters, was used as a hide-out for Ramzi Yousef and Mir Aimal Kansi, who was convicted and sentenced to death for killing two Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) officers outside the CIA’s headquarters in Washington in January 1993.[40]
Guantanamo detainee Khalid Bin Abdullah Mishal Thamer Al Hameydani's Combatant Status Review Tribunal said that he had received training via Lashkar-e-Taiba.[41]
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.[42][43][44][45]
Also, the Lashkar is claimed to have operated a military camp in post-Sept 11 Afghanistan, and extending support to the ousted Taliban regime.