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Lashkar-e-Tayiba: A history of terrorism
December, 2008
Pakistani media and some foreign news agencies, including the Associated Press, reported on December 8, that helicopter-borne;Pakistani security forces raided a camp of the Lashkar-e-Tayibalocated at a place called Shawai, on the outskirts of Muzaffarabad, thecapital of Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK), on December 7 anddetained 12 inmates of the camp including Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi,reportedly the Lashkar's operational ent chief. According to Indian investigators, Lakhvi was the mastermind of theterrorist attacks in Mumbai. Details available so far from the Indianinvestigators and other sources indicate that Lakhvi planned andorchestrated the terroriststrike in the same manner that KhalidSheikh Mohammad, now facing trial in Guantanamo Bay, hadorchestrated the 9/11 terrorist strikes in the US for Al Qaeda[Images]. As a matter of policy, the Lashkar never claims responsibility for any acts of terrorism in Indian territory outside Jammu and Kashmir[Images]. Even in J&K, it claims responsibility only for attacks onsecurity forces and not for attacks on civilians. Its statementsclaiming responsibility are generally issued in Lakhvi's name,Pakistani sources describe Professor Hafiz Mohammad Sayeed as theamir of the Jamaat-ud-Dawa, the Lashkar's political wing and Lakhvias the amir of the Lashkar.In an interview to The Nation (April 9, 1999) from Muzaffarabad,Lakhvi said: 'We are extending our network in India and carried outattacks on Indian installations successfully in Himachal Pradesh[Images] last year. To set up mujahideen networks across India is ourtarget. We are preparing the Muslims of India against India and whenthey are ready, it will be the start of the disintegration of India.'Under US pressure following the terrorist strike on the IndianParliament on December 13, 2001, then Pakistan president PervezMusharraf [Images], in a telecast to his nation on January 12, 2002,announced his decision to ban the Lashkar and the Jaish-e-Mohammad. Lieutenant General Moinuddin Haider, then interiorminister, issued a notification on January 15, 2002, formally banningthe five organisations under the Anti-Terrorism Act of 1997. They were Lashkar, Jaish, the Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan, the Tehreek-e-Jafferia Pakistan and the Tehreek-e-Nifaz-e-Shariat-e-Muhammadi.The ban order was carried in the Pakistani gazette the same day.
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As I had pointed out at that time, the gazette order banned theactivities of the Lashkar only in Sindh, Pakistani Punjab, the North West Frontier Province and Balochistan. It did not ban its activities inthe Federally Administered Tribal Areas, the Northern Areas andPoK. When Pakistani journalists questioned local authorities about it, they were told that since PoK was an autonomous state, only the localgovernment in Muzaffarabad had the power to issue a ban order.They also said that a separate ban order in respect of the FATA andthe NA would follow. No ban order was issued by the PoK government. Nor was any order issued by the Islamabad [Images]government in respect of FATA and the NA. The Pakistani authoritiesalso made it clear that the Lashkar and Jaish were being banned not because of the Indian allegations of their involvement in acts of terrorism in Indian territory, but because of their suspected terroristactivities in Pakistani territory.The authorities then detained 1,957 persons belonging to the five banned organisations and 615 of their offices were sealed. But there was no action against their leadership, members and infrastructure inthe FATA, PoK and the NA. The majority of those arrested were fromthe political and administrative cadres of these organisations. There were practically no arrests of their trained terrorists. An estimated 5,000 trained terrorists were reported to have eitherescaped to the FATA, PoK and the NA or gone underground in otherparts of Pakistan. The Lashkar terrorists escaped to PoK and the NA.Those of the Jaish escaped to the FATA. Among those arrested in Punjab was Professor Sayeed, the amir of the Markaz Dawa Al Irshad, as the Lashkar's political wing was thenknown. Lakhvi was not arrested. He shifted to PoK and startedoperating from Shawai. At this camp, he trained terrorists and sendthem into J&K and other parts of India for carrying out acts of terrorism. After some weeks, the Pakistani authorities releasedSayeed and others arrested in the other provinces of Pakistan on theground that they did not find any evidence of their involvement inacts of terrorism in Pakistani territory.They rejected Indian allegations of their involvement in acts of terrorism in J&K and other parts of India. As regards their activitiesin J&K, they described them as part of a freedom struggle. As regardstheir activities in other parts of India, they asserted that India had not been able to produce any evidence in proof of its charge.
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Sayeed re-named the MDI as Jamaat-ud-Dawa, a charity andhumanitarian relief organisation, which, according to him, hadnothing to do with the Lashkar. The Pakistani media continued toidentify the JuD as nothing but the Lashkar under a different name.Thus, two organisations started operating -- the JuD headed by Sayeed in the four Pakistani provinces and the Lashkar headed by Lakhvi in PoK and the NA. In his capacity as the amir of the JuD,Sayeed started travelling all over Pakistan to collect funds and to setup a new network.Concerned over his activities, in 2004, the US again started pressingMusharraf to ban the JuD too and to enforce effectively the earlier ban on the Lashkar. The renewed US pressure was due to thefollowing reasons:The unearthing of sleeper Lashkar cells in the US and Australia[Images]. Its role in the training of a number of Indonesians andMalaysians, including the brother of Hambali of the JemaahIslamiyah, at one of its madrassas in Karachi. Its suspected role intraining some recruits from Singapore at one of its training camps inPoK. Its assumption of the role of the co-ordinator of theInternational Islamic Front formed by bin Laden in 1998. Itsactive role in collecting funds and recruiting volunteers for joining the jihad against US troops in Iraq. The virulent anti-US statements inrelation to Iraq issued by Professor Sayeed. Reports circulating inPakistan that Al Qaeda would in future be using non-Arabsuicide volunteers recruited by the Lashkar in view of the difficultiesfaced by the Arab members of Al Qaeda in travelling to the US andother Western countries.In the wake of the renewed US pressure came a report in the reliableDaily Times of Lahore [Images] (July 18, 2004) claiming thatfollowing personal differences with Sayeed over his marrying a 28- year-old widow, whose husband was killed in J&K, some Lashkarmembers had broken their links with the JuD and formed a new organisation called the Khirun Naas meaning the welfare of themasses.The Daily Times reported as follows: 'The Khairun Naas wasestablished with the support of most of the LeT and a majority withinthe party. The KN's leadership consists mostly of LeT commandersincluding Lakhvi, JuD Lahore head Abu Shoiab, Punjab head AbuNaser Javed, Abdul Qadir and Saifullah Mansoor. Professor Iqbal
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Lashkar e Tayiba a History of Terrorism
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