Page 1 of 2 Lashkar-e-Toiba in the dock
By Amir Mir
ISLAMABAD - Dreaded for its guerrilla operations in Indian-administered Jammu
and Kashmir and accused of masterminding the November 2008 terrorist attacks in
Mumbai, Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT), or the Army of the Pure, is once again in the
media spotlight. The United States Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI)
recently disclosed to a US federal court that the LeT is training recruits to
be commandos at its terrorist camps inside Pakistan.
The FBI charges give credence to estimates by international terrorism experts
that the focus of LeT, which seems inspired by al-Qaeda, has expanded beyond
India because it casts itself in the role as a saviour of Islam. Once focused
narrowly on the conflict in Jammu and Kashmir, the LeT is evolving into a
global
exporter of terrorism as its leadership has now opened its training camps to
foreigners, the experts say.
Afghanistan may be off-limits to the white enthusiasts from the West yearning
for jihad, but terrorist training camps still operate on Pakistani soil and
their graduates are proving troublesome for the West, according to that
narrative. With an increasing presence and frequency of the LeT's networks and
activities in the Western world, there is a growing alarm in the US and Europe
regarding the escalation of the terrorist threat in their own backyards.
In a complaint submitted before a Virginia-based federal court on September 1,
2011, the FBI said the LeT's involvement in terrorist activities is reflected
in communications of Zubair Ahmad, a 19-year-old Pakistani national currently
in legal permanent residency in the US who was arrested on charges of providing
material support to the LeT.
According to admissions from Zubair during FBI interrogation, he had received
indoctrination and training from the LeT while living in the city of Sialkot in
Punjab. "These communications demonstrate that, as a teenager, in or about
2004, Zubair Ahmad attended an LeT training course known as Dora Suffa where
he had received instruction in religious dogma and proselytizing," said the FBI
complaint.
Thereafter, Zubair had attended LeT's basic training camp known as Dora A'ama,
where he had received additional religious indoctrination, physical
conditioning and weapons instruction. Subsequent to attending Dora A'ama,
Zubair reported for the next stage of LeT training - the commando course known
as Dora Khasa.
"He spent only a week at that course, however, because an instructor at the
training camp told Zubair that he was too young, that he needed to continue his
studies, and then he could return to complete Dora Khasa," said the FBI
complaint.
The complaint added that Zubair was given a visa by the US State Department on
October 16, 2006, based on the fact that his father was related to an American
citizen. He along with his father, mother and two younger brothers entered the
US on February 19, 2007.
According to the compliant, the FBI started an investigation after it received
information that Zubair Ahmed might be connected with LeT. It subsequently
discovered that Zubair provided material support to LeT by producing and
posting propaganda videos for the group while working in tandem with Talha
Saeed, the son of the LeT's founding amir, Professor Hafiz Mohammad
Saeed.
One such video was created and uploaded on September 25, 2010. To create the
video, Zubair was in direct contact with Talha. Images of Hafiz Seed preaching
and being arrested by the Pakistani police, and images of Muslims being killed
by Pakistani and Middle Eastern troops were included in the propaganda, along
with prisoners and their jailers at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq, Pakistani
weapons systems, and clips of US armored vehicles being blown up in roadside
bomb attacks in Iraq. A prayer given by Hafiz Saeed that repeatedly invokes
jihad and praises the mujahideen is played in the background.
According to the FBI complaint, Talha gave Zubair editing instructions and
guidance on where he could find images and clips of items he wanted in the
video. Talha was also careful not to have the LeT explicitly mentioned, or
connected with the November 2008 terror assault in Mumbai, for which the Indian
authorities have blamed the LeT. "Talha asked Zubair to include pictures of
Hafiz Saeed when Hafiz was being arrested and placed under house arrest", said
the FBI complaint.
As the conversation continued, Talha Saeed described types of photos to be used
in the video. Zubair asked if he should post the Mumbai one and added they want
to show their power ... Talha told Zubair not to use anything referencing
Mumbai but added that he could make reference to Palestine and Kashmir. In
October 2010, Talha instructed Zubair to remove all references to LeT before
uploading the video. Zubair uploaded the final version of the video to YouTube
on October 16, 2010, the FBI complaint stated. He deleted the video from his
YouTube account after an FBI team visited his house in August 2011.
Over the past decade, the US Treasury Department has added the LeT and its
so-called charitable front organizations, the Jamaatul Daawa (JuD) and
Falah-e-Insaniat Foundation (FIF), as global terrorist groups. The
Falah-e-Insaniat Foundation was established in 2009 after the United Nations
added the Jamaatul Daawa to its list of proscribed terror groups in the wake of
the November 2008 Mumbai terror attacks. Although Hafiz Saeed and several of
his top aides have already been designated by the US and the UN as terrorists,
they keep on moving freely in Pakistan, propagating jihad in both India and
Pakistan.
Lethal beginnings
Founded by Hafiz Saeed in 1991 in the Kunar province of Afghanistan with the
backing of the Pakistani Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), the Lashkar-e-Toiba
has proved to be one of the most dangerous jihadi groups operating out of
Pakistan and fighting the Indian security forces in Jammu and Kashmir.
The lethal Lashkar happens to be an Ahle Hadith (Wahabi) jihadi group which was
born as an armed wing of Markaz Daawatul Irshad (MDI), or Center for
Proselytization and Preaching. The MDI was set up in 1988 by three Islamic
scholars - Hafiz Saeed and Zafar Iqbal, who were professors of Islamic Studies
at the University of Engineering and Technology, Lahore, and Dr Abdullah Azzam,
a professor of the International Islamic University, Islamabad.
Azzam was also the ideologue for the Palestinian militant group, Hamas, besides
being the political mentor of al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden. But the moving
spirit behind the military might of the LeT had always been commander Zakiur
Rehman Lakhvi; the prime accused in the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks, currently
being tried by a Pakistani court.
The main purpose of the MDI was to promote the purification of society in
accordance with the teachings of the holy Koran and sharia (Islamic
laws).
Towards the end of the Soviet war in Afghanistan, the MDI set up an armed wing
- the LeT. The militant group's objectives included establishing an Islamic
state in South Asia and uniting all Muslim majority regions in countries that
surround Pakistan.
With the launching of the LeT, several military training camps were set up in
the eastern Afghanistan provinces of Kantar and Paktia, both with a substantial
number of Ahle Hadith (Wahabi) followers, aiming to take part in the
US-sponsored jihad against the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan.
Since the LeT had joined the Afghan jihad at a time when it was winding down,
the group did not play a major part in the fight against the Soviet forces,
which had pulled out in 1989. But the participation of the Lashkar cadres in
the Afghan jihad helped its leadership gain the trust of the Pakistani
establishment.
Insurgency in Jammu and Kashmir beginning in 1989 came at an appropriate time
to provide an active battleground for the LeT militants when its top brass was
made to turn its attention from Afghanistan and devote itself to waging jihad
in Jammu and Kashmir.
The LeT almost immediately shot into prominence by launching several deadly
guerilla attacks against the Indian security forces in Jammu and Kashmir,
establishing itself as an effective jihadi group operating in the troubled
valley. Almost 22 years later, the Lashkar today is undoubtedly considered one
of the most effective jihadi organizations in the Indian-administered Jammu and
Kashmir and involved in guerilla activities, largely due to its extraordinary
growth in size, vast resources as well as fame.
The outfit has more than 3,000 offices across Pakistan and over two dozen
launching camps for militants along the Line of Control. While its primary area
of operations is Jammu and Kashmir, LeT has been accused of carrying out terror
attacks in other parts of India too, including Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore,
Hyderabad, Varanasi, Kolkata and Gujarat.
The Lashkar has been able to network with several Islamic extremist
organizations across India, especially in Jammu and Kashmir, Andhra Pradesh,
Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra, Karnataka and Gujarat. The Indian authorities allege
that the LeT is engaged in subversive activities in Maharashtra, West Bengal,
Bihar, Hyderabad, New Delhi, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh at the instance of the
Pakistani intelligence establishment to expand the frontier of violence outside
Jammu and Kashmir by subverting fringe elements.
Compared to other Pakistani jihadi organizations, the LeT has proven a great
success. Since its inception, it has managed to attract thousands of committed
young men to its fold. The driving force behind its success in recruitment is
deceptively single.
It uses its impressive organizational network, which includes schools, social
service groups and religious publications, to create a passion for jihad. But
its militants are not sent to war just to die as martyrs; they are trained to
kill, taught the use of infantry tactics and small arms - from handguns to
assault rifles and rocket-propelled grenade launchers.
The Lashkar is believed to be the only jihadi group operating out of the
Pakistan-administered Kashmir that still keeps a comparatively large group of
activists at its Khairati Bagh camp in the Lipa Valley. Another camp is said to
be functional at Nala Shui in Muzaffarabad, from where young militants are sent
out after being indoctrinated at the Muridke headquarters near Lahore.
Compared to other militant groups active in Jammu and Kashmir, the LeT has
commanded significant attention for two reasons. Firstly, for its well planned
and well executed fidayeen attacks on Indian security forces in Jammu
and Kashmir, and secondly, for the dramatic massacres of non-Muslim
civilians.
Head
Office: Unit B, 16/F, Li Dong Building, No. 9 Li Yuen Street East,
Central, Hong Kong Thailand Bureau:
11/13 Petchkasem Road, Hua Hin, Prachuab Kirikhan, Thailand 77110
