The Leaders of Lashkar - e Taiba - Research Paper Example

?Lashkar – e- Taiba Lashkar – e- Taiba is one of most dangerous terrorist group that world has ever seen. The word Lashkar – e – Taiba means “The Army of Good “in Arabic and it is an international terrorist organization which has ties to many radical Muslim groups. It was found in 1990 by Hafez Saeed Abdullah Azaam and is the most active terrorist group in South Asia and it operates from Pakistan. It was formed as a consequence of Kashmir –India war and has an aim of attacking and resisting Indians in Kashmir. The main reason for its formation was to liberate Muslims living in Kashmir, India and to establish an Islamic state in the South Asia. According to ( Tellis) “In fact, since its establishment in 1987, LeT’s objectives relating to Kashmir and, more generally, India were fundamentally embedded in wider ambitions, with its focus on the subcontinent deriving mainly from its practical circumstances”. The suspected leaders of Lashkar - e – Taiba are Hafiz Muhammad Saeed ( Founder and Head) Abdul Rehman Makki (Second in Commander) Zaki – ur –Rehman- Lakhvi(Senior Member) Zarra Shah( Planning head) Muhammed Ashraf ( Financial Officer), Mahmoud Mohamed Ahmed Bahaziq ( Leader & Financier)Nasr Javed ( Senior Operative). The characteristics of Lashkar leaders are fanaticism, radicalism, violence, suspicious identity, self - destruction, possession of weapons, illegal activities and funding and conspiracy. They have a suspicious identity and these people are not seen in public. They have an aggressive nature and are strong willed and high determination. They have the motive of separating Kashmir from India and joining with Pakistan as a Muslim state. This group is motivated by Al – Qaeda theology and US Foreign Policy. They have the sole purpose of destroying India a country and to uproot Hinduism and Judaism. LeT has declared Hindus and Jews to be enemies of Islam. According to ( Ahmed) “ Union minister of state for home I.D. Swami said Pakistan-based terrorist organizations like the Lashkar-e-Tayyaba are primarily interested in destroying and subverting India”. According to this agenda, they will always be loyal to Muslim brotherhood and have enmity towards “infidel”. They have the purpose of “jihad” which means “Holy War” and enforce Muslim laws on the world. One of the thing they are trying to accomplish is to get rid of non – Islamist troop out of India and Middle East. They want to destroy Indian Republic as they believe that India the enemy of Islam and wants to subjugate the Islamic world. Lashkar -e- Taiba is attempting to preserve its ideologies of a puritanical and fundamental group. They want to preserve their religious laws and want to be distinctive from other cultures of world. They believe that Hinduism and Judaism are religion against Islamic values and want to eradicate them. They want to accomplish a strictly observing Islamic world with Quran principles as its foundation. Lashkar-e- Taiba as a terrorist group has focus on social, religious and political aspect. If one look at social aspect they want a culture or a world which is conservative and less liberal .They want a society which resembles and follows a restrictive life for women. On religious side, they focus on promoting a world where the Islamic rules are followed. Lashkar- e- Taiba is a radical movement and a fanatic organization which only believe in one religion of Islam. On Political grounds they want to destroy non-believers especially India. Even though Lashkar target Hindus and Jews they do kill all sorts of people who are against their agenda. The Lashkar – e- Taiba has targeted India and Israel despite of the existence of Muslim population in the country. They despise Indian and Jews and most of the attacks have been made on Indian nationals. But they also have enmity towards Jews and they have a large scale network operation. Basically, non Muslims are their main targets. For the reason for targeting these people are basically because they devaluate Islamic rules and principles and demoralize their culture. Lashkar -e – Taiba believes that any non – believer is an enemy and threat to their religion .Also political conflicts like Western invasion on Arab land and India’s conflict with Pakistan is a reason for these countries being their target. However, the motives and aggression of LeT has been able to be resisted to an extent due to the countermeasures taken by countries all over the world. Some of the countermeasures are as follows. 1) Enhanced physical security - The authorities have erected more barriers around buildings, international airport and important public places to avoid terrorist attack. They carry out scanning and checking of people at important public places with the aid of metal detectors and x – rays. Even the Indian embassies were special securities that trace their future attacks. Even building was renovated with physical security standards, premier security programs and other surveillance measures. 2) Internet activity monitoring – The main activities of Lashkar-e-Taiba takes place on internet as they recruit, send messages through interest services and e- mails. The intelligence agents throughout the world along with other experts have been monitoring the internet for radical activities to trace their origin, method of operation and recruitment techniques. 3) Destroying the sites of Lashkar –e-Taiba is one of the things done by India by destroying the secret hubs in Pakistan and Kashmir. The Indian security forces search places that are supposed to be their hideouts like the rocky terrains and places in Kashmir and Pakistan border .Also they have many network operations all over India which is tracked down by undercover agents in India with help of America and Britain. Many countermeasures has been taken by Government and people to fight against terrorism .But the surprising fact is that, the Lashkar –e- Taiba is a technically powerful group with highly skilled engineers, bomb makers, weapon handlers and strategist so the government need to be more technical and intelligent than them and to an extend these government countermeasures has been effective and terrorist attacks are lot lesser than before. Still we need to make improvements as the Lashkar is still planning for more attack in future. According to ( Karim) “Indian intelligence agencies may be able to penetrate and destroy links with the LeT network. It is important to break the liaison between the LeT and Indian radical groups considering the objectives and ideology of LeT, which pose a manifest danger to India”. Terrorism is a threat for the whole world and being the most powerful radical group, we need more tactful approach to fight Lashkar –e-Taiba. Following policy has the capability to avoid terrorism to a great level if carried out with a proper plan and viability. Awareness and Education among Muslim youth As we know, Lashkar operates with the help of people and recruiting young people is the main strength and strategy of the group. All of the members of LeT are fanatics and are overly religious to an extent that they do anything to impose their religious laws. We can see than many of the people who are recruited are having less knowledge about the real message of Holy Quran. The distorted beliefs and less knowledge of the ideas of religion has been a main reason for LeT formation. So it is first important to eradicate the ignorance of people especially poor Muslims to avoid terrorism. The right kind of education or awareness should be given to young population by a Muslim clergyman. These Muslim youth need to educate by a religious person who has a goodwill and respect in the society. We know that brain washing is a technique of LeT to enforce unrealistic religious aims and people who are ignorant and illiterate. So to avoid this kind of behavior, the youth and even children from younger age should be guided in the right direction. As per (Peterson)“Ahmed blames misinterpretations of the Quran and Islam for the dual extremes of Islam phobia and violent Islamist radicalism’. In reality, the Quran does not talk about “Jihad” as killing oneself or fighting or killing as a measure to spread Islam. It is certain radicals with political interest that spread such messages and tactics to persuade people into their group to expand their network. The youth who are more prone to join terrorist group need to be educated and given right information about Quran message. They should be strongly restricted against violence and given training to accept peace and harmony as the sole aim of Quran. They should be turned religious in a way that they benefit to the society. They should be educated about the drug abuse, illegal activities and atrocities of LeT which turn against the words of Prophet Mohammed. They should be given an insight in to the real life of Prophet who was a pious man and other Prophets who has only loved God and people. In his article (Awuah) writes that “According to him, Prophet Mohammed, who formed Islam, loves peace co-existence of all manner of people irrespective of their religious, financial, and social or any other consideration” . Prophet who never even abused people should be idolized in their mind by a tactful and skillful religious leader. Even though this policy looks less technical, the effect of it can be profound and lasting if carried out in all countries with Muslim population. References Awuah, Joe. "Don't Join Terrorist Groups – Chief Imam Warn Muslim Youth." http://www. modernghan a.com. Modern Ghana, 2013. Web. 30 Nov. 2013. . Ahmed, Faraz. "Lashkar wants to destroy India: Swami." http://www.jammu-kashmir.com. Asian Age, 18 Aug. 2001. Web. 2 Dec. 2013. . Blanchard, Christopher M. "Al Qaeda: Statements and Evolving Ideology." https://www.fas.org. Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade division, 2007. Web. 29 Nov. 2013. . Karim, Afsir. "War against Lashkar-e-Taiba."http://www.i ndiandefencereview.com. Indian Defence Review, 2012. Web. 2 Dec. 2013. . Peterson, Nolan. "Chicago Islamic leader uses education as weapon against terrorism and discrimination." http://news.medill.northwestern.edu. Medill, 2012. Web. 30 Nov. 2013. . Tellis, Ashley J. "The Menace That Is Lashkar-e-Taiba." http://carnegieendowment.org. Canegie Downment , 2012. Web. 2 Dec. 2013. . Read More