Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) is a Pakistani Islamist Jihadist militant organisation driven by a Salafi jihadist ideology. The organisation's primary stated objective is to merge the whole of Kashmir with Pakistan.John Moore, The evolution of Islamic Terrorism , PBS It also seeks the destruction of India, Hinduism, and Judaism through jihad. It was founded in 1985–1986 by Hafiz Saeed, Zafar Iqbal Shehbaz, Abdullah Azzam and several other Islamist mujahideen with funding from Osama bin Laden during the Soviet–Afghan War. It has been designated as a terrorist group by the United Nations and numerous other countries and been responsible for terrorist attacks on civilians in India, such as the 2000 Red Fort attack, 2005 Delhi bombings, 2006 Mumbai train bombings, 2008 Mumbai attacks and the 2025 Pahalgam attack.
It has been supported by Pakistan’s intelligence agency, the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), and is often viewed as a proxy militant organisation used by Pakistan against India in the insurgency in Indian-administered Jammu and Kashmir.C. Christine Fair, In Their Own Words: Understanding Lashkar-e-Tayyaba, Oxford University Press (2018), pp. 3
Its affiliated front organisations include the Milli Muslim League, a political party, and Jamat-ud-Dawa (JuD), the group's "charity wing". The group differs from most other militant groups in Pakistan in following the Islamic interpretation of Ahl-i Hadith (which is similar to Wahhabism and Salafism), and in foreswearing attacks on the government of Pakistan and sectarian attacks on Pakistanis "who have professed faith" in Islam.
Objectives
While the primary area of operations of LeT's jihadist activities is the Kashmir Valley, their professed goal is not limited to challenging India's sovereignty over Jammu and Kashmir. LeT sees the issue of Kashmir as part of a wider global struggle. Once Kashmir is liberated, LeT seeks to use it "as a base of operations to conquer India and force Muslim rule to the Indian subcontinent."
LeT’s ideology is fundamentally anti-Western, with the British Raj held responsible for the decline of the Mughal Empire. Consequently, LeT opposes any form of Western or British influence in Pakistan and the broader South Asian region. In its publications and on various platforms, the organisation has consistently articulated its primary political goals, which include the destruction of India, Hinduism, and Judaism. The organisation considers jihad a religious duty for all Muslims, with the establishment of a caliphate as its central religious and political objective.
C. Christine Fair, who has analyzed LeT propaganda since 1995, notes that the militant organisation has consistently condemned what it describes as a "Brahmanic-Talmudic-Crusader" alliance of Hindus, Jews, and Christians, whom it accuses of collaborating to undermine the Ummah.
Its followers are proponents of the South Asian group Ahl-e-Hadith (AeH) Islam, which is considered Salafist. It has adopted maximalist agenda of global jihad including attacks on civilians. The group justifies its ideology on verse 2:216 of the Quran.
Extrapolating from this verse, the group asserts that military jihad is a religious obligation of all Muslims and defines the many circumstances under which it must be carried out. In a pamphlet entitled "Why Are We Waging Jihad?", the group states that all of India along with many other countries were once ruled by Muslims and were Muslim lands, which is their duty to take it back from the non-Muslims. It declared United States, India, and Israel as "existential enemies of Islam".Who are the Kashmir militants , BBC News, 6 April 2005 LeT believes that jihad is the duty of all Muslims and must be waged until eight objectives are met: Establishing Islam as the dominant way of life in the world, forcing disbelievers to pay jizya, exacting revenge for killed Muslims, punishing enemies for violating oaths and treaties, defending all Muslim states, and recapturing occupied Muslim territory. The group construes lands once ruled by Muslims as Muslim lands and considers it as their duty to get them back. It embraces a pan-Islamist rationale for military action.
In the wake of the 2008 Mumbai attacks investigations of computer and email accounts revealed a list of 320 locations worldwide deemed as possible targets for attack. Analysts believed that the list was a statement of intent rather than a list of locations where LeT cells had been established and were ready to strike.
Unlike other Pakistan-based Salafi-jihadist militant organisations, LeT has "publicly [renounced] sectarian violence against other Islamic sects". While it has waged violent jihad outside of Pakistan, inside the country, the group has spent considerable effort and resources on "preaching and social welfare". This along with its professed opposition to not fighting "those who have professed Faith" in Islam (where thousands of Muslims have been killed in sectarian attacks), has built up significant goodwill among Pakistanis, especially pious Muslims and the poor (helping to protect the group from foreign pressure on the Pakistan government to stop LeT's killing of foreigners). Although it views Pakistan's ruling powers as hypocrites (self-proclaimed but insincere Muslims), it doesn't support revolutionary jihad at home because the struggle in Pakistan "is not a struggle between Islam and disbelief". The pamphlet "Why do we do Jihad?" states, "If we declare war against those who have professed Faith, we cannot do war with those who haven’t." The group instead seeks to reform errant Muslims through dawa. It aims to bring Pakistanis to LeT's interpretation of Ahl-e-Hadith Islam and thus, transforming the society in which they live.
LeT's leaders have argued that Indian-administered Jammu and Kashmir was the closest occupied land, and observed that the ratio of occupying forces to the population there was one of the highest in the world, meaning this was among the most substantial occupations of Muslim land. Thus, LeT cadres could volunteer to fight on other fronts but were obligated to fight in Indian-administered Kashmir.
In January 2009, LeT publicly declared that it would pursue a peaceful resolution in the Kashmir issue and that it did not have global jihadist aims, but the group is still believed to be active in several other spheres of anti-Indian militancy. The disclosures of Abu Jundal, who was sent to India by the Saudi Arabian government, however, revealed that LeT is planning to revive militancy in Jammu and Kashmir and conduct major attacks in India.
Leadership Hafiz Muhammad Saeed – founder of LeT and aamir of its political arm, JuD. Shortly after the 2008 Mumbai attacks Saeed denied any links between the two groups: "No Lashkar-e-Taiba man is in Jamaat-ud-Dawa and I have never been a chief of Lashkar-e-Taiba." On 25 June 2014, the United States declared JuD an affiliate of LeT. Abdul Rehman Makki – second in command of LeT. Until his death, he was the brother-in-law of Hafiz Muhammad Saeed. The US has offered a reward of $2 million for information leading to the location of Makki. Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi – released on bail from custody of Pakistan military – senior member of LeT. Named as one of the masterminds of the 2008 Mumbai attacks. On 18 December 2014 (two days after the Peshawar school attack), the Pakistani anti-terrorism court granted Lakhvi bail against payment of surety bonds worth Rs. 500,000. Yusuf Muzammil – senior member of LeT and named as a mastermind of the 2008 Mumbai attacks by surviving gunman Ajmal Kasab. Zarrar Shah – in Pakistani custody – one of LeT's primary liaisons to the ISI. A US official said that he was a "central character" in the planning behind the 2008 Mumbai attacks. Zarrar Shah has boasted to Pakistani investigators about his role in the attacks. Muhammad Ashraf – LeT's top financial officer. Although not directly connected to the Mumbai plot, after the attacks he was added to the UN list of people that sponsor terrorism. However, Geo TV reported that six years earlier Ashraf became seriously ill while in custody and died at Civil Hospital on 11 June 2002. Mahmoud Mohamed Ahmed Bahaziq – the leader of LeT in Saudi Arabia and one of its financiers. Although not directly connected to the Mumbai plot, after the attacks he was added to the UN list of people that sponsor terrorism. Nasr Javed – a Kashmiri senior operative, is on the list of individuals banned from entering the United Kingdom for "engaging in unacceptable behaviour by seeking to foment, justify or glorify terrorist violence in furtherance of particular beliefs." Abu Nasir (Srinagar commander) Zafar Iqbal is a senior leader and co-founder of Lashkar-e-Tayyiba. Born in one of the Pakistani, well-known, prosperous landlord,(zamindar) of Gujrat Sardar Ali Khan's house. He formed in the late 1980s with current LeT emir Hafiz Muhammad Saeed and LeT financier and senior member Mahmoud Mohammad Bahaziq. Zafar Iqbal has served in various Lashkar-e-Tayyiba/Jamaat-ud-Dawa (LeT/JuD) senior leadership positions. Zafar Iqbal has also been involved in LeT/JuD fundraising activities. Iqbal travelled to Jeddah, Saudi Arabia to request financial support from former Al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden. As of late 2010, Iqbal was in charge of the LeT/JuD finance department. As of early 2010, Iqbal was also the director of the LeT/JuD education. As of 2010, Iqbal was also the president of the LeT/JuD medical wing and secretary of a university trust created by LeT/JuD to carry out unspecified activities on behalf of the group.
History
Formation In 1985, Hafiz Mohammed Saeed and Zafar Iqbal formed the Jamaat-ud-Dawa (Organisation for Preaching, or JuD) as a small missionary group dedicated to promoting an Ahl-e-Hadith version of Islam. In the next year, Zaki-ur Rehman Lakvi merged his group of anti-Soviet jihadists with the JuD to form the Markaz-ud Dawa-wal-Irshad (Center for Preaching and Guidance, or MDI). The MDI had 17 founders originally, and notable among them was Abdullah Azzam. Azzam would be killed in a car bombing orchestrated by Khad in 1989.
The LeT was formed in Afghanistan's Kunar province in 1990 and gained prominence in the early 1990s as a military offshoot of MDI. MDI's primary concerns were dawah and the LeT focused on jihad although the members did not distinguish between the two groups' functions. According to Hafiz Saeed, "Islam propounds both dawa[h] and jihad. Both are equally important and inseparable. Since our life revolves around Islam, therefore both dawa and jihad are essential; we cannot prefer one over the other."
Most of these training camps were located in North-West Frontier Province (NWFP) and many were shifted to Pakistan-administered Azad Kashmir for the sole purpose of training volunteers for terrorism in India. From 1991 onward, militancy surged in India, as many Lashkar-e-Taiba volunteers were infiltrated into Indian-administered Jammu and Kashmir from Pakistan-administered Azad Kashmir with the help of the Pakistan Army and ISI. As of 2010, the degree of control that Pakistani intelligence retains over LeT's operations is not known.
Designation as terrorist group On 28 March 2001, in Statutory Instrument 2001 No. 1261, British Home Secretary Jack Straw designated the group a Proscribed Terrorist Organisation under the Terrorism Act 2000.
On 5 December 2001, the group was added to the Terrorist Exclusion List. In a notification dated 26 December 2001, United States Secretary of State Colin Powell, designated Lashkar-e-Taiba a Foreign Terrorist Organization.
Lashkar-e-Taiba was banned in Pakistan on 12 January 2002.
It is banned in India as a designated terrorist group under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act.
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 on 11 April 2005 and 31 March 2007.