Lashkar-e-Taiba, The Pakistan Based Terrorist Outfit

Notwithstanding the denials by Pakistan, India has credible reasons to belive that the notorious terrorist outfit Lashkar-e-Taiba was instrumental behind the New Delhi serial bomb blasts on October 29. Just last month, the Lashkar-e-Taiba served public notice of its intentions. In its September 23 issue, the Lashkar-affiliated magazine Ghazwa editorially called for a renewal of Pakistani state support for the jehad in Jammu and Kashmir. India, it claimed, was working to divide Pakistani society by “cunningly using the slogan of friendship,” while at once supporting forces hostile to it in Baluchistan and Afghanistan. Ghazwa demanded that President Musharraf admit that the détente process had given Pakistan nothing and work instead “to fortify the jihad.”

Of arguments that continued support for jehad imposed unacceptable costs upon Pakistan, Ghazwa was dismissive. “Now is the right time for Pakistan to support the jehad in Kashmir,” it said, “because America has entangled herself in the wars of Iraq and Afghanistan and in addition is suffering from severe afflictions like Katrina and Rita.” “Pakistan should remember,” the magazine asserted, “that even a so-called superpower like the United States has been badly worn at the hands of the mujahideen. Remember what happened to the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics and then think about India: how can it resist the jehad?”

Understanding the Lashkar position requires an engagement with its core position: that the jehad in Jammu and Kashmir is not a battle over territory, but a part of an irreducible conflict between Islam and unbelief. Committed to the eventual creation of a caliphate that would rule over all the world’s Muslims, the Lashkar asserts that a jehad-without-end must continue “until Islam, as a way of life, dominates the whole world and until Allah’s law is enforced everywhere in the world.” As the noted scholar of Islam Yoginder Sikand perceptively pointed out, the Lashkar’s vision of Islam is one that leads it to represent the Quran itself as a manifesto for jehad.

Indian rule in Jammu and Kashmir is, in this construction, necessarily evil and oppressive, because “the Hindus have no compassion in their religion.” “In fact,” Hafiz Mohammed Saeed who heads Markaz Dawa wal’Irshad, a seminary which runs a massive network of charitable and educational institutions in Pakistan, had declared some years ago, “the Hindu is a mean enemy and the proper way to deal with him is the one adopted by our forefathers, who crushed them by force.” India is, in turn, part of just a global system of oppression that must be overthrown by force. As the Lashkar spokesperson Nazir Ahmad bluntly stated: “through the jehad that the mujahideen have launched in Kashmir, Islam will become dominant all over the world.”

Not surprisingly, some Lashkar-affiliated leaders have operated in Iraq and the United Kingdom; cells have also been detected in the United States. Despite considerable global pressure on Pakistan to dismantle the Lashkar, its infrastructure is largely intact. After British investigators found that terrorists involved in the recent bombings of the London Underground had visited Lashkar facilities, little doubt was left that its activities posed a global threat. Yet the Lashkar’s fundraising activities, as well as the recruitment of personnel and the military training of cadre, continue apace under the Markaz Dawa banner. All of this begs the obvious question: why?

Analysts offer several possible answers to the question. One explanation might be that the tail wags the dog: that Pakistan’s President simply does not have enough support within his military to act against those it gave birth to during the Afghan jehad and is tied to by links of ideology and faith. Another plausible theory, advocated amongst others by the scholar and academic Husain Haqqani, is that continued jehadist activity suits General Musharraf, allowing him to represent himself to the world as the last line of defence against an Islamist coup.

Either way, the Delhi bombings have once again made clear a stark fact: as long as terrorist groups possess the capabilities to carry out violent acts, they will sooner or later use what is available. Given past experience, it is unlikely that the tragedy in Delhi will force General Musharraf to change course. In key senses, Ghazwa is right: the U.S. is too preoccupied with events in Iraq and Afghanistan, and too dependent on Pakistani support for its counter-terrorism campaign, to make Jammu and Kashmir-related developments a central policy concern.

Without dispute, the Lashkar is well-positioned to capitalise on the situation. Set up with the support of Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence and Osama bin-Laden’s aide Abdullah Azam, the Lashkar has emerged as an organisation of global reach, largely untouched by the U.S.’ war against terrorism. Part of a sprawling political empire, the Lashkar is the armed wing of the Markaz Dawa. Although the Markaz denies it has any connection with the Lashkar, the claim has been debunked by a large mass of media investigation and scholarly work.