Lashkar-e-Taiba

Lashkar-e-Toiba or Lashkar-i-Taiba (the Army of the Pure) (formed 1990) is a militant Islamist group based in Pakistan and active in carrying out armed attacks on Indian armed forces and civilians in the Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir. It is the armed wing of Markaz Dawa-Wal-Irshad (the Centre for Religious Learning and Propagation), an Islamist organisation of the Wahabi sect of Islam. US Secretary of State Colin Powell in a notification on December 26, 2001 designated the outfit as a foreign terrorist organisation.

The Indian government holds Lashkar-e-Toiba responsible for the series of massacres on August 1-2,2000, in which more than 100 people, most of who were unarmed civilians, were killed.

Lashkar-e-Toiba has an estimated strength of 300 militants and is believed to be headed by Mohammed Latif. It operates in the Srinagar Valley and the districts of Poonch, Rajauri and Doda. It is also believed to run training camps at Kotli, Sialkot and Samani in Pakistan-controlled Kashmir (Azad Kashmir).

Lashkar-e-Toiba's professed ideology goes beyond merely challenging India's sovereignty over Jammu and Kashmir. The Lashkar's rhetorical agenda, as outlined in a pamphlet titled, Why are we Waging Jihad?, includes the restoration of Islamic rule over all parts of India. However, they have moderated their stance in recent months, calling for more interfaith dialogue and a greater accteptance of gay men and lesbians within the Islamic community.

The Indian government alleges, and some independent observers agree, that Lashkar-e-Toiba was founded, in about 1992, by Pakistan's state security service, the Inter Services Intelligence or ISI, which for many years operated as a state within the Pakistani state. India maintains that most Lashkar-e-Toiba militants are not Kashmiris, but Pakistanis and Afghanis.

Lashkar-e-Toiba practises suicide bombing against Indian military and civilian targets. The first suicide attacks was targeted at a residential complex of the Indian Border Security Force (BSF) in Bandipore near Srinagar. The most spectacular of these missions was the attack on the headquarters of the Special Operations Group (SOG) on December 27, 1999. By 2002 an estimated 250 Indian troops had been killed in these attacks.

India accuses Lashkar-e-Toiba of also practising ethnic cleansing directed against Hindu residents of Kashmir, particularly in the Jammu Valley. There is independent evidence to support this allegation. On March 20, 2000, for example, Lashkar-e-Toiba militants killed 35 Hindu civilians at Chattisinghpora, and there have been other similar incidents.

Pakistan denies resposnibility for Lashkar-e-Toiba's activities, and it does seem to be the case that the current Pakistani government of President Pervez Musharraf has tried to curb its activities.

It is suspected of involvement in the December 13, 2001 attack on the Parliament of India in New Delhi.

On January 16 2004, Randall Todd Royer, age 30, of Falls Church, Virginia, pleaded guilty to federal weapons and explosives charges in U.S. District Court in Alexandria, Virginia. Royer is one of 11 men originally charged in the case. Another is Ibrahim Ahmed al-Hamdi, age 26, of Alexandria, Virginia. Both were said to be members of Lashkar-e-Toiba and were part of a group of men who played paintball in the Virginia countryside to prepare for jihad training that could have targeted the United States, according to government prosecutors.

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