Lashkar E Taiba - Coursework Example

Running Head: Lashkar e Taiba Name Course Tutor Date 1.0 Introduction Lashkar e Taiba, shortened as LeT and popularly known as the Army of the Pure, is one of the most lethal terrorist groups that are operating in Southern Asia region (Bajoria, 2011). The title can also be translated to mean the Army of the Good or the Army of the Righteous (Bajoria, 2011). It is rated as one of the most largest and active Islamic terrorist groups that has ever existed. It is among the several banned militant groups in Pakistan even though it continues to carry out its terrorist operations. The organization that makes up the group, however, operates mainly for Pakistan and experts say that it receives immense backing from the intelligence agency in Pakistan known as the International Services Intelligence Directorate (ISI) (Fair, 2011). 2.0 History, Causation & Origin Sources indicate that Lashkar e Taiba was formed immediately after the its religious parent organization had also been formed. The parent organization is referred to as the Markaz Dawa ul Irshad which was formed during the late 1980’s (Fair, 2009). The Markaz was a center for preaching and was set up in Murdike outside a town known as Lahore by Hafiz Mohammed Saeed, who was a former professor of engineering at the University of Punjab (Bajoria, 2011). The other founding leaders of the group were Zafar Iqbal Abdul Rehman Makki and Zaki Lakhvi. Within a short period of time, the Markaz became popularly known for preaching staunch views about the Islam religion (Fair, 2009). Most of its meetings and congregational services began to advocate for the holy war (Jihad). It fully began to be active in 1993 by recruiting volunteer members to fight alongside the Taliban (Noonan & Stewart, 2011). In these early years of the 1990’s, the group received instructions and financial support from the ISI so that it could pledge to target the Hindus who lived in Jammu and Kashmir. Kashmir is a territory that has long been disputed over by India and Pakistan (Noonan & Stewart, 2011). They were also to train Muslim extremists on how to fight on Indian soil. The founder of the group, Hafiz Mohammed Saeed, based its headquarters in Murdike near Lahore, a town in the province of Punjab (Fair, 2011). By the year 1994, Lashkar e Taiba had already established its base as a militant terrorist group (Fair, 2011). A large number of its members were non-Kashmir citizens, unlike the trend of all the other Kashmir militant groups. It did not join in the alliances formed by the other Kashmir militant groups since it generally preferred acting on its own. Up to date, Lashkar e Taiba remains one of the most known lethal terrorist groups that have its operating base in and from south Asia (Fair, 2011). It also maintains operational offices and training camps in the major cities of Pakistan. Its existence has lead to soured relationships between India and Pakistan (Fair, Chalk & Hess, 2008). 2.1 Ideologies and goals The group’s main ideologies and goals are terrorist attacks (Fair, 2009). Terrorism can be defined as the acts of immense and unlawful violence that or threats of unlawful violence that inculcate fear, are intended to coerce or intimidate governments or societies in pursuit of either political, religious or ideological goals (The United States Department of Defence in (Bajoria, 2011)). The terrorists use force and a lot of violence against the people or property with motives of coercion, intimidation or ransom. More so, acts of terrorism usually range from threats of violence, actual assassinations, airline hijackings, building explosions, car bombs and biological attacks just but to mention a few (Wilson, 2009). Lashkar e Taiba was officially launched in the year 1990 with various goals and missions to accomplish. Its main goal was to fight over the territory of Kashmir with claims that it was the only territory inhabited by non-believers (Noonan & Stewart, 2011). At the time, Kashmir was heavily populated by Indians and it became its primary focus. The war that was waged was also allegedly a jihad (holy war) (Fair, 2011). It is also said that the leader of the group, Saeed, bore personal grudges against India among with other several Pakistan’s. As a result it received enormous support from the ISI and the Pakistan military to wage war against India on the Kashmir territory. Because of this support, the group on the other hand, took oath never to launch attacks on Pakistan itself (Noonan & Stewart, 2011). According to sources, the group has also repeatedly asserted that one of its major objectives was to completely destroy the Indian republic by completely annihilating Hinduism and Judaism (Tayler, Ganguly & Human Rights Watch, 2011). By doing this, they have even declared the Hindus and the Jews as very great enemies to the Islam religion. In another article, Why are we Waging Jihad, the group had set its core agenda as restoration of the Islamic religion and the Islam faith and rule all over the parts of India. In this article, Israel, India and the United states were declared the biggest enemies to Islam, pp. 37. To accomplish these objectives, the members of LeT have a strong belief that all Muslims who have a calling to fight violent jihad as a way of protecting their religion (Rath, 2010). The jihad in itself has eight objectives. In waging the war, the Lashkar e Taiba believe that they are fulfilling these eight objectives which are, ending Islam persecution, defending Muslim states, recapturing Islam territories that have been occupied, punishing enemies and protecting the weak and the feeble (Fair, 2009). The other four are to punish offenders, force the infidels to pay jizya, establish Islam in the world and execute revenge for the Muslims that are killed (Fair, 2009). Lashkar e Taiba has been designated as a global terrorist group. This is majorly because of its activities that have far reached targeting even the international community (Noonan & Stewart, 2011). The implications for my argument here is that the group could not simply be termed as domestic or individual because of its varied number of terrorist attacks. Even though, the group has a very strong domestic inclination in Pakistan. For instance, it has played a tremendously vital domestic role in countering other militant groups that have tried to attack Pakistan and its citizens (Fair, 2011). Moreover, Pakistan as a nation has continuously sustained its support for the group for its military importance to the state. 2.2 Current status, operation and funding Even though there are a number of militant groups operating in Pakistan, the Lashkar e Taiba stands out as a different group because of its uniqueness. The group has its current status as operational in the major cities of Pakistan (Tayler, Ganguly & Human Rights Watch, 2011). It still fights to seize the territory of Kashmir but has accomplished several other terrorist attacks. In contrast with the other groups, LeT remains loyal to Pakistan for all practical purposes and reasons. It has never targeted Pakistan and exclusively operates out of Pakistan. It is also strongly linked to the security and the military establishment of Pakistan (Fair, 2011). The organization has a vast training infrastructure located in almost all the major cities in Pakistan. It currently has a dual mission: to train militants and to convert as many Pakistanis as possible to the Ahl-e-Hadith Islamic tradition (Bajoria, 2011). Its operations that were once restricted to the Indian administered Kashmir have now grown country wide. In the year 2001, the group had been fully designated as a terrorist group and was placed on the terrorist exclusion list by the United States. It was then officially banned in 2002 (Fair, 2011). The ban was enforced as a result of international pressure on the Pakistan president Pervez Musharraf following several attacks that had been executed by the group on the international community (Rath, 2010). The situation however continues since immediately after the ban, the group reportedly gave itself a new name, Jama’at-ut-Dawah (JuD) (Bajoria, 2011). Lamentably, the ban was only but a gesture of pretence by the Pakistan president since he did not put in any effort to break up or suppress the group. He simply directed it to keep a low profile. It now poses itself as a charitable organization. The group has since its formation been funded and supported by the government. Experts have indicated that its headquarters is also endowed with a complex of houses that is known as the madrassa (Bajoria, 2011). This contains facilities for a hospital, a very large residential area, a market, a farm for fish and other agricultural tracts. In addition, the group is also known to operate several schools, a number of Islamic institutions, blood banks, mobile clinics and numerous seminaries across the vast territory of Pakistan (Fair, 2011). All these are sources of funding for the JuD. Subsequently, the group is notoriously known for collecting donations from the Pakistan expatriate community, from non-governmental organizations and from prominent businessmen (Noonan & Stewart, 2011). It also known that as much as strange it may sound; every kind of shop in any town in Pakistan has installed collection boxes that are meant to collect funds directed at supporting the struggle in Kashmir (Bajoria, 2011). Another source of funds for the group comes from the sale of magazines that it publishes such as the Voice of Islam, which is a monthly edition printed in English. Moreover, its main source of funding remains the ISI and the Saudi Arabian government (Fair, Chalk & Hess, 2008). In the year 2005, it also collected a lot of funds when it spearheaded the campaign for humanitarian relief of the victims of the then Kashmir earthquake. 2.3 Its Terrorist Activities The terrorist activities of the Lashkar e Taiba have gone transnational. Its major networks and organizations have demonstrated that the group has very high capabilities of carrying out insurgent and vicious attacks on an international scale (Bajoria, 2011). It is particularly suspected to have links with transnational terrorist groups such as the Virginia Jihad Network, the Dhiren Barot, the Crevice Network and largest of all the Al-Qaeda team in Afghanistan (Noonan & Stewart, 2011). The impact of their terrorist activities has already been felt and is beginning to pose a threat to international security. The Lashkar e Taiba has been blamed for various terrorist attacks since it rose to prominence over 10 years ago. The Mumbai 2008 attack in India was the most spectacular of all (Fair, 2011). The blames are not only in Kashmir but in the whole of India and other places all over the world. Its first major attacks were in 1993 when its militants attacked trains in Mumbai with five coordinated explosive devices (Noonan & Stewart, 2011). For instance it was blamed for the bomb attacks that took place in the capital city of India, Delhi, in October 2005 that left over sixty people dead. Moreover, in 2001 December, the group was also blamed for laying very audacious attacks on the Indian soil. The Indian parliament had been targeted in this attack (Tayler, Ganguly & Human Rights Watch, 2011). This incident almost led to a war between break out between India and Pakistan. Previously, the group was also notorious for admitting responsibility over many bomb attacks in India. It is also suspected to have had links with the train bombings that occurred in 2006 in Mumbai (Noonan & Stewart, 2011). Several people were killed in this attack. In 2007, a blast occurred in a train that was running between India and Pakistan and they were also suspected to be responsible for the attack. This was reported by the United States State Department in 2007 (Bajoria, 2011). For the many years that it has been in existence, the group has been associated with numerous terrorist attacks. The Mumbai, India 2008 attack is one that stirred international outcry against the Lashkar e Taiba. This was its greatest attack that resulted in an offshoot on an international scale against the group. The investigations that were done after this attack revealed that the Lashkar e Taiba was the one responsible with support from the current and former ISI officers (Fair, 2011). Allegedly, these officers had provided high standard training on terrorism and given a lot of operational support to the group. They had also provided real time guidance in how the attacks would be staged effectively to the attack team designated for Mumbai (Noonan & Stewart, 2011). 2.4 How to Combat Lashkar e Taiba While the discussion above has elicited to the fact that the threat posed by the group is ongoing, several measures could be put in place to neutralize the effects that the activities of this group has caused. Retaliating by other attacks on the group does not solve the problem at all (Fair, Chalk & Hess, 2008). First and foremost, the group under the name JuD has posed its role as facilitating charity work. Therefore it makes a lot of sense for Pakistan to support its expansion in providing social services such as charity (Bajoria, 2011). In 2004, the group largely expanded schools (madrassahs), clinics, ambulance services among others. In 2005, it also raised enormous funds for the relief of the victims of the Kashmir earthquake. In the same year, the same group was extensively involved in the provision of aid to the victims of the Asian tsunami (Fair, 2011). It also provided medical assistance. In 2009, it gave help to the persons who had fled the military operations in their own country thus becoming internally displaced. Granted these range of relief activities, the organization could easily be turned into acknowledged relief aid organizations through talks and treaties (Rath, 2010). Moreover, another suggestion is for strong international intervention that is required to resolve the ongoing dispute over the Kashmir territory (Fair, Chalk & Hess, 2008). This, however, is more likely to be ineffective. In one way or the other, the international states which have been victimized by LeT ought to come together in cooperation and forge for ways that will counter the terrorism activities of the group. These include measures on intelligence and anti terrorism initiatives which are aimed at interdicting any sort of planned attacks and prosecuting the responsible individuals (Fair, Chalk & Hess, 2008). The prosecutions can also present a chance to solicit for more evidence which can be used to incriminate other criminals responsible leading to their arrest (Noonan & Stewart, 2011). Such efforts will downgrade the capability and the efficacy of the rest of the members of the group. In addition, foreign ministries could cooperate to put a ban on any recruitment moves by the group, transfer of funds and any other material support that may be channelled to the group (Fair, Chalk & Hess, 2008). In this manner, the group will have no means to sustain its operations and will be denied all freedom of movement of its assets and any kind of support. Disrupting its potential cells and plots will also lessen the impact of the group. Conclusively, all national and multi-lateral organizations must work together to target any specific individuals that might be affiliated to the group. Pakistan itself should be encouraged to sanction any of its citizens that will be found supporting the activities of the group. (Fair, 2011) All financial and military assisted should not be offered to Pakistan. Considerably, Pakistan refusal to shut down its militant training camps despite calls from the international community must be approached with strict sanctions. With these measures in place, it is in my opinion that the impact of the Lashkar e Taiba will lessen. Works Cited Bajoria, J., & Council on Foreign Relations. (2011). Will Pakistan follow Egypt's example? New York, NY: Council on Foreign Relations. Pg 33 Fair C, (May 24, 2011) Lashkar-e-Taiba beyond Bin Laden: Enduring Challenges for the Region and the International Community: Testimony prepared for the U.S. Senate, Foreign Relations Committee Hearing on ―Al Qaeda, the Taliban, and Other Extremist Groups in Afghanistan and Pakistan pp.1-24 Fair C. (March 11, 2009),Antecedents and Implications of the November 2008: Lashkar-e Taiba Attack Upon Mumbai: Testimony presented before the House Homeland Security Committee, Subcommittee on Transportation Security and Infrastructure Protection pp.87-134 Fair C. (January 2011).The Militant Challenge in Pakistan, Asia Policy 11pp. 105-37. Fair, C. ., Chalk, P., & Hess, G. R. (January 01, 2008). Fortifying Pakistan: The Role of US Internal Security Assistance. The International History Review, 30, vol 1. pp. 212. Noonan S.,& and Stewart (Sep 15 2011): The Evolution of a Pakistani Militant Network. Retrieved from http://www.stratfor.com Rath, S. (January 01, 2010). New Terror Architecture in South Asia. India Quarterly: a Journal of International Affairs, 66, 4, pp.359-381. Tayler, L., Ganguly, M., & Human Rights Watch (Organization). (2011). The "anti nationals": Arbitrary detention and torture of terrorism suspects in India. New York, NY: Human Rights Watch.pp.5-44 Wilson, M. (2009). Terrorism: Opposing viewpoints. Detroit: Greenhaven Press. pp. 12 Read More

2.1 Ideologies and goals The group’s main ideologies and goals are terrorist attacks (Fair, 2009). Terrorism can be defined as the acts of immense and unlawful violence that or threats of unlawful violence that inculcate fear, are intended to coerce or intimidate governments or societies in pursuit of either political, religious or ideological goals (The United States Department of Defence in (Bajoria, 2011)). The terrorists use force and a lot of violence against the people or property with motives of coercion, intimidation or ransom.

More so, acts of terrorism usually range from threats of violence, actual assassinations, airline hijackings, building explosions, car bombs and biological attacks just but to mention a few (Wilson, 2009). Lashkar e Taiba was officially launched in the year 1990 with various goals and missions to accomplish. Its main goal was to fight over the territory of Kashmir with claims that it was the only territory inhabited by non-believers (Noonan & Stewart, 2011). At the time, Kashmir was heavily populated by Indians and it became its primary focus.

The war that was waged was also allegedly a jihad (holy war) (Fair, 2011). It is also said that the leader of the group, Saeed, bore personal grudges against India among with other several Pakistan’s. As a result it received enormous support from the ISI and the Pakistan military to wage war against India on the Kashmir territory. Because of this support, the group on the other hand, took oath never to launch attacks on Pakistan itself (Noonan & Stewart, 2011). According to sources, the group has also repeatedly asserted that one of its major objectives was to completely destroy the Indian republic by completely annihilating Hinduism and Judaism (Tayler, Ganguly & Human Rights Watch, 2011).

By doing this, they have even declared the Hindus and the Jews as very great enemies to the Islam religion. In another article, Why are we Waging Jihad, the group had set its core agenda as restoration of the Islamic religion and the Islam faith and rule all over the parts of India. In this article, Israel, India and the United states were declared the biggest enemies to Islam, pp. 37. To accomplish these objectives, the members of LeT have a strong belief that all Muslims who have a calling to fight violent jihad as a way of protecting their religion (Rath, 2010).

The jihad in itself has eight objectives. In waging the war, the Lashkar e Taiba believe that they are fulfilling these eight objectives which are, ending Islam persecution, defending Muslim states, recapturing Islam territories that have been occupied, punishing enemies and protecting the weak and the feeble (Fair, 2009). The other four are to punish offenders, force the infidels to pay jizya, establish Islam in the world and execute revenge for the Muslims that are killed (Fair, 2009). Lashkar e Taiba has been designated as a global terrorist group.

This is majorly because of its activities that have far reached targeting even the international community (Noonan & Stewart, 2011). The implications for my argument here is that the group could not simply be termed as domestic or individual because of its varied number of terrorist attacks. Even though, the group has a very strong domestic inclination in Pakistan. For instance, it has played a tremendously vital domestic role in countering other militant groups that have tried to attack Pakistan and its citizens (Fair, 2011).

Moreover, Pakistan as a nation has continuously sustained its support for the group for its military importance to the state. 2.2 Current status, operation and funding Even though there are a number of militant groups operating in Pakistan, the Lashkar e Taiba stands out as a different group because of its uniqueness. The group has its current status as operational in the major cities of Pakistan (Tayler, Ganguly & Human Rights Watch, 2011). It still fights to seize the territory of Kashmir but has accomplished several other terrorist attacks.

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