Close observers of Pakistan have recognized for years now there is another reason: Lashkar-e-Taiba not only abjures launching attacks in Pakistan, but also helps combat groups that do. It has not only gathered intelligence about anti-state militants — jihadists, as well as separatists in Balochistan — but also helped to neutralize them at times. Lashkar-e-Taiba has also promoted an ideological and theological counter narrative condemning militant groups that attack the Pakistani state.
It also highlights the fact that extremist interpretations of Islam have entered the Pakistani mainstream. Lashkar-e-Taiba has embraced this role for ideological and operational reasons. Put another way, refraining from violence against Pakistan is necessary to maintain its support for jihad against India, the United States, and other non-Muslim enemies. Yet this is only half the story.
Lashkar-e-Taiba is as committed to reforming Pakistani society and promoting its brand of extremist Islam at home as it is waging jihad abroad. Today, many Pakistanis see Jamaat-ud-Dawa, which runs hospitals and ambulance services across the country, as a robust social welfare organization, and not an alias for a lethal terrorist group. In the decade since the Mumbai attacks, Lashkar-e-Taiba leaders have gained a bigger seat at the table in Pakistan. Although Saeed and others originally claimed this new political party was a purely independent entity, he announced late last year that Jamaat-ud-Dawa was contesting elections under its banner.
To be clear: Pakistan makes a cosmetic distinction between Lashkar-e-Taiba and Jamaat-ud-Dawa, but the United States and the United Nations consider them to be the same organization and have designated it as a terrorist group.
Individual members of jihadist organizations have been contesting elections in Pakistan for years. In theory, entering electoral politics can have a moderating influence on terrorist organizations and perhaps even create conditions for mainstreaming them. In reality, the Pakistan security establishment has not forced a choice between terrorism and politics. Instead, Lashkar-e-Taiba has been given space to arrogate political power, influence the domestic discourse, and promote hawkish policies toward India, all while continuing to ply its terrorist trade.
Until only a few months before the Mumbai attacks, the plan was for the ten man terrorist team to escape. Nine of the terrorists fought to the death. The tenth — Amir Ajmal Kasab — was captured. Headley has confessed before both US and Indian agencies that he acted at the behest of ISI and that the terror group responsible for the attack, LeT, was acting under the same spy agency's umbrella.
Not being extradited to India, Pakistan or Denmark was one of the conditions on which the rogue US intelligence agent had turned approver. The prosecution had produced some 20 witnesses in the Anti-terror court to testify against Saeed and his close aides for their alleged involvement in terror financing. He has already recorded his statement before the court in two terror financing cases against him in which he pleaded "not guilty".
The council has 'approved' the letter after no objections were raised to it within the set deadline. Pakistan authorities on Wednesday arrested Hafiz Saeed, the alleged mastermind of a four-day militant attack on the Indian city of Mumbai in , on terror finance charges, a spokesman for the chief minister of Punjab said. He was released from house arrest in Pakistan in November Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan's seriousness on tackling terrorism was left exposed when a leaked video showed his junior interior minister vowing to "protect" Mumbai attack mastermind Hafiz Saeed and his party.
JuD, a front for the Lashkar-e- Taiba militant group that carried out the deadly Mumbai attack, launched its political front Milli Muslim League, but it has not been yet registered. Saeed said he would contest the election on the platform of Milli Muslim League MML , though he did not disclose anything about the constituency, reported Pakistani media. Have you read these stories?
ET NOW. Brand Solutions. Video series featuring innovators. ET Financial Inclusion Summit. Malaria Mukt Bharat. Suspect's luxury jail time. Pakistan bails Mumbai attack suspect. Image source, Getty Images. Lakhvi was previously tried in Pakistan but was released on bail in , sparking protests in India. Related Topics. Pakistan Mumbai Islamist extremism India. Published 10 April Published 18 December
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