Pak-based Lashkar-e-Taiba?s Compulsion to Carry Out ?Jihad? in Kashmir | All You Need to Know

The Lashkar-e-Taiba is once again in the news after intelligence sources said the Pakistan-based group was behind the Poonch terror attack on Thursday. The often-banned organisation, which has taken on many names from time to time, has had a compulsion to carry out so-called jihad in Kashmir.

Lashkar sources in Lahore, South Punjab and Rawalpindi told CNN-News18 that this compulsion stemmed from nothing but personal gains for their leadership. From capturing film halls in Lahore to extortion and forcing people to pay more zakat in the name of religion to training youth for fighting in Kashmir, the Pakistan-based group?s agenda is to be the only one relevant. It wants to create a parallel army in Pakistan for its own gains and extort money from Pakistani generals as non-state actors, the sources added.

Lashkar had gone off the radar after the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) ordered it to fight alongside the Taliban in the Afghan War. Sources said the Poonch attack ahead of the high-profile G20 meeting in Jammu and Kashmir was a show of power from Lashkar even as a crisis was brewing on the Pakistan-Afghanistan border.

Even if Pakistan?s version is accepted that it had no role to play in the attack, as the country is under pressure from Saudi Arabia and UAE as well as their own domestic financial issues, these groups are not operating on their own. The question remains as to how such groups can operate from the border without state approval.

MANAGING FINANCE AND BLACKMAILING PAKISTAN GOVERNMENT

The Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) has taken on many names: MDI, LeT, JuD, AAT, FiF, but all these were banned whenever Pakistan was facing pressure from the international community. As of 2018, their last registered organisation, Falah-i-Insaniat Foundation (FiF), was also banned. Public fundraising was a major part of their money operations to run such a large network. As Pakistan is fighting for funding from the international community, and are under pressure from the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) to control terror funding, it is only right for the organisation to blackmail its founders. – (News18.com)