Islamabad, November 23: The Pakistan-based militant group that attacked the Indian city of Mumbai a year ago remains an implacable Indian foe and could strike again despite Pakistani efforts to rein it in.
The Lashkar-e-Taiba emerged from the embers of the Islamist battle against Soviet occupiers in Afghanistan in the 1980s and began fighting Indian forces in the disputed Kashmir region in the early 1990s.
While its network has spread globally, as shown by the recent arrest of suspects linked to the group in Chicago and Italy, its focus remains India, said people with knowledge of the group.
“I don’t know whether they’ll carry out another attack like Mumbai, but for sure they won’t leave India in peace as long as Kashmir is not resolved,” said a former group member.
“Their goal is Kashmir freedom. It’s the priority. They still pray for the freedom of Kashmir every time they finish their prayers,” said the former Lashkar member who is still involved in Islamist causes and who declined to be identified.
India and Pakistan have fought two of their three wars since independence in 1947 over the Muslim-majority Himalayan region which both claim in full but rule in part.
Pakistan nurtured guerrilla factions, including the Lashkar, which have been fighting forces in Indian Kashmir since 1989.
India broke off talks with Pakistan after the Mumbai assault, in which 166 people were killed, and is pressing Pakistan to dismantle Lashkar’s infrastructure and training camps.
Another big attack in India could trigger Indian retaliation in Pakistan and draw the nuclear-armed neighbors into a conflict that could also derail U.S. hopes of stabilizing Afghanistan.
Pakistani authorities have put seven Lashkar members on trial for their links to the Mumbai violence while the Lashkar founder, Hafiz Mohammad Saeed, who India says was the mastermind behind the Mumbai assault, was briefly put under house arrest.
Authorities also closed offices of the group’s humanitarian wing, Jamaat-ud-Dawa, and took over its network of projects.
Lashkar is officially banned in Pakistan but unofficially tolerated as the only militant group not believed to have been involved in attacks inside the country, analysts say.
Lashkar cadres are also seen as a kind of civil defense force in the event of war with India, while Saeed is a regarded as a moderating influence on a new generation of militants.
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“THEY’RE OUT THERE”
Abdullah Muntazir, a former member of the charity linked to Lashkar, said the group had never considered attacks in Pakistan.
Muntazir, who is now an analyst on Islamist issues, said the authorities had closed many Lashkar training camps in Pakistani Kashmir after the Mumbai attack but that had had a limited impact.
“For guerrilla fighters, you don’t need big installations. They roam around, live in cities and towns like ordinary people. So they’re out there, they could be anywhere,” Muntazir said.
The former Lashkar member said some new camps had recently opened up in Pakistani Kashmir.
“The main camps have been shut down but a few new small ones are sprouting in remote areas. I’ve met them there,” he said.
Going after Lashkar now would create a new enemy when Pakistan is concentrating on defeating its Taliban in northwestern regions from where they have orchestrated a barrage of bomb attacks.
Security analyst Mahmud Ali Durrani said the authorities wanted to wind up Lashkar but the priority was to focus on groups attacking the state.
“They have to go after the people creating the biggest problem for Pakistan,” said Durrani, a former general and national security adviser. “That has to be their priority number one, and then go after the others.”
Meanwhile, India’s demand that Pakistani authorities prosecute Saeed is likely to be ignored, partly because Saeed is seen as keeping young, aggressive militants in check.
“He’s a figurehead,” said the former Lashkar member. “His departure would open the floodgates. No one would be able to control the hot-heads.”
—Agencies