Lashkar-e-Taiba

[Merlin]

The Pakistan government has now admitted that this group organized the Mumbai terror attacks last November. But only last month the Pakistan court has released the group's founder Saeed from house arrest.

Pakistan admits extremists' involvement in Mumbai attacks

19 July [LATimes] In a dossier shared with Indian officials, Pakistani investigators acknowledge that militant Islamic group Lashkar-e-Taiba organized the November attacks that killed 166 people.

Reporting from New Delhi and Islamabad, Pakistan -- A dossier compiled by Pakistani investigators acknowledging that a Pakistani extremist group was behind last year's Mumbai attacks could help set the stage for the beginnings of a thaw in relations with India.

The dossier, which Pakistani officials handed over to their Indian counterparts during talks in Egypt last week, concludes that the militant Islamic group Lashkar-e-Taiba organized the attacks on luxury hotels, a railway station and other targets in Mumbai in November that killed 166 people.

India had blamed the attacks on Lashkar-e-Taiba and urged Pakistan to clamp down on the group. But until now, Pakistan had not directly tied the group to the Mumbai violence.

Meeting in Sharm el Sheik last week on the sidelines of a summit, Pakistani Prime Minister Yusaf Raza Gillani met with his Indian counterpart, Manmohan Singh, and pledged to resume dialogue between the two countries, a significant step toward reconciliation.

Relations between India and Pakistan, nuclear-armed countries that historically have regarded each other as archenemies, froze in the wake of the attacks, as New Delhi accused Islamabad of dragging its feet in tracking down Lashkar-e-Taiba members involved in the rampage. .....

Lashkar-e-Taiba was formed about 20 years ago to fight Indian rule in the Himalayan region of Kashmir. It was founded by firebrand Islamic cleric Hafiz Saeed with what many say was support from Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence agency. A Pakistani court freed Saeed from house arrest last month, angering Indian leaders.

Indian diplomats quoted anonymously in an Indian newspaper and on television said the dossier's acknowledgment of Lashkar-e-Taiba's involvement in the Mumbai attacks played a role in India's decision to open the door toward a resumption of dialogue with Islamabad.

Former Indian Foreign Secretary Salman Haider said Gillani and Singh wanted to "convey that some progress was being made, and in Pakistan's case, this progress could be seen in admitting to Lashkar-e-Taiba involvement." .....

Pakistani authorities have charged several men in the attacks, including Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi, the man they said masterminded the three-day siege. ....

Still, India is unlikely to seek stronger ties with Islamabad while Saeed remains free. A court in Lahore released the 59-year-old cleric on the grounds that the government had not provided enough evidence to warrant his detention. The government has appealed that ruling.

India regards Saeed as one of its most wanted men. Pakistani authorities have arrested him twice before in connection with terrorist attacks on Indian soil -- in 2001 for an attack on the Indian Parliament, and in 2006 after train bombings in Mumbai that killed about 200 people.

In both instances, Pakistani authorities held him under house arrest for a short period before releasing him.

[Merlin]

The Lasjkar commander Lakhvi is under custody in Pakistan.

Noose tightens around Lashkar commander Lakhvi

20 July [TimesIndia] NEW DELHI: With Mohammad Ajmal Amir Kasab, the lone Pakistani terrorist caught alive during the 26/11 Mumbai attacks, naming Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi for masterminding the operation, the noose has tightened around the Lashkar-e-Taiba commander who is currently in custody in Pakistan.

India has from the beginning asserted that Lakhvi was the architect of the 26/11 attacks in which 180 people were killed.

Lakhvi, 48, also known as "Chacha", has been on the Indian intelligence radar since the early '90s and fled to Pakistan-administered Kashmir after security agencies managed to foil a series of bomb attacks in the capital in July 1998.

Since then he has been conducting operations from Pakistan, say intelligence sleuths, before being made head of all LeT operations in India. He serves as supreme commander of operations in Pakistan-administered Kashmir and is a member of the outfit's general council.

In its 36-page dossier that was handed over to India, Pakistan has detailed activities of five terrorists, including Lakhvi, who have been arrested. ...

Rehman Malik, Pakistan's interior minister, stated that Lakhvi was still in custody and under investigation as the foremost mastermind behind the attacks.

[Merlin]

Apparently LeT's operations go beyond Kashmir and India.

Bangla arrests top LeT man, second catch in a week

Dhaka, Jul 21 (PTI) A top operative of Lashkar-e-Toiba was arrested in Bangladesh, the second Indian militant linked to the terrorist group to be nabbed in the country in less than a week, police said today.

Maulana Mohammed Mansur Ali alias Maulana Habibullah, an Indian national, was active in Kashmir and has been the main organiser of LeT in Bangladesh, Deputy Commissioner of Detective Branch Monirul Islam told reporters.

He was arrested from Dakkhin Khan area in Dhaka yesterday after an intensive manhunt engaging police spies, Islam said. ....

[Merlin]

Click into the link to read more. It's a long analysis.

How dangerous is Lashkar-e-Taiba to the west?

8 July LONDON (Reuters) - Should the west be worrying as much about Lashkar-e-Taiba as al Qaeda?

The group blamed for last year's attacks on Mumbai has a formidable training and logistics infrastructure, and a global network of sympathizers used to raise funds for its Jamaat-ud-Dawa (JuD) charitable wing.

That makes it a danger not just to India -- which is demanding action against the Laskhar-e-Taiba (LeT) as the price for resuming peace talks with Pakistan -- but also a potential threat to the west given its strong base and global reach.

"Al Qaeda does not command those kinds of resources any more," said Praveen Swami at Indian newspaper the Hindu.

Based in Pakistan's heartland Punjab province, the group was once nurtured by Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) to fight India in Kashmir.

But a rare decision to target westerners and Jews along with Indians in the Mumbai attacks has added to worries the group might eventually turn its sights on the west.

"The attitude of the United States toward the LeT is quite different from what it was before," said Kamran Bokhari, Middle East director for global intelligence company Stratfor. ....

"India is still the number one enemy, but LeT's priorities are shifting, or at least expanding," said Stephen Tankel, at the International Center for the Study of Radicalization and Political Violence in Washington.

Tankel, who is working on a book on the LeT, said it was "clearly now folding westerners and Jews into terrorist attacks in India" as well as fighting U.S.-led forces in Afghanistan.

"But this is still different from planning and prosecuting an attack on British soil or American soil," he said.

THE ACADEMIC INFLUENCE

Born out of a group founded by university professor Hafiz Saeed to fight the Soviets in Afghanistan, the LeT was dubbed by one analyst as "the thinking man's jihadi group."

Even after 9/11 it initially managed to stay under the radar of western governments because of its focus on Kashmir, while its refusal to hit targets inside Pakistan allowed it to retain a strong base there despite being formally banned.

But the attitude of western governments toward the LeT has been changing, fueled by worries about it training western recruits in bomb-making or helping them make their way through Pakistan to join al Qaeda. ....

[Merlin]

This is real messy. There are so many groups, so many unbroken historic links, and the weak Pakistan government is not in control of the country. Thus "everything in its power" does not mean much.

Pakistan's Ties to Terror Group Are Unclear

22 July [WSJ] NEW DELHI -- The sole surviving gunman in last year's Mumbai terror attacks may have sealed his fate with a dramatic courtroom confession Monday, but Pakistan's determination and ability to dismantle the group that plotted the assault remains an open question.

Pakistan, after initially denying that any of its citizens took part in the assault that left more than 170 people dead, has in the past six months sought to convince India and the U.S. that it is doing everything in its power to shut down the group thought to be responsible, Lashkar-e-Taiba. ....

Five of the alleged plotters arrested in Pakistan weeks after the attack are to go on trial in the coming days. Pakistani officials say Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani earlier this month gave his Indian counterpart a dossier detailing what Islamabad knows about Lashkar's involvement in the attack.

But U.S. and Indian officials still see worrying signs of business as usual. Lashkar's co-founder, Hafiz Mohammed Saeed, was released last month from house arrest by a Pakistani court, which cited a lack of evidence to hold him. The group's infrastructure is still largely intact, even if its leadership is in disarray, say U.S. and Pakistani officials. ....

Lashkar is believed to have a few thousand active members and many more in reserve. The group, if left intact, could remain an obstacle to better relations between India and Pakistan. That would likely hamper the fight against the Taliban by keeping the bulk of Pakistan's large military focused on the border with India, not the militants.

Yet Lashkar's long ties to Pakistan's powerful security establishment -- and deep roots it has put down in rural villages through its charity arm -- leave the government with a difficult challenge. The army and the Inter-Services Intelligence spy agency insist they no longer support Lashkar, but the relationship remains ambiguous. An ISI official acknowledged in an interview that the spy agency still maintains informal contacts with Lashkar but insisted colleagues were purely monitoring the group, not aiding it. ....

U.S. and other Western officials say they believe that some weapons and money still flow to the group but that the aid is limited and not provided on orders from top commanders. Intelligence field officers and Lashkar operatives "have definitely been growing apart," said a U.S. official. "But the relationship is still there on some level. ....

Lashkar was one of a number of Islamist groups once nurtured by the ISI and used as a proxy against Indian forces in the divided Himalayan region of Kashmir and Afghanistan. Many of those groups have now turned on Pakistan, launching suicide attacks in cities and fighting alongside the Taliban in the northwest.

Lashkar has remained focused on India, India's part of Kashmir and, to a lesser extent, Afghanistan, say U.S. and Pakistani officials. With Pakistan's resources stretched thin by the Taliban and its militant allies, "it is hard for us to devote what we need to devote to winding up an organization like Lashkar," said a senior Pakistani official. .....

[Kernow]

Hey Merlin, do you ever let people respond to your threads, it appears that all the information in the majority of your threads is entered by yourself.

[Merlin]

LOL! Of course, Chaobam. This is WAB. Comments are welcome.

[Merlin]

Can Pakistan sever all times with LeT? (And we have to be clear which Pakistan are we talking about, and which one matters?)

Even if all ties with Pakistans are severed, what then?

Terror Ties Run Deep in Pakistan, Mumbai Attack Case Shows

26 July [NYTimes] RAWALPINDI, Pakistan — In a high-security jail here, five men — all members of the Islamic militant group described by the United States and India as the organizers of the terrorist rampage in Mumbai last year — were brought before a makeshift court in Pakistan’s first steps to bring them to justice.

The brief appearances, described by a defense lawyer, were held in secret for security reasons on Saturday in a case that Pakistan says shows its willingness to prosecute the group, Lashkar-e-Taiba. Pakistan also says that the case will demonstrate that its military, which once backed the group as a surrogate force against India, has severed all ties.

But behind the first glimmerings of the case, sympathies for Lashkar-e-Taiba and its jihadist and anti-Indian culture run deep in this country, raising a serious challenge to any long-lasting moves to dismantle the network.

The membership of Lashkar-e-Taiba extends to about 150,000 people, according to a midlevel officer in Pakistan’s premier spy agency, the Directorate for Inter-Services Intelligence. Together with another jihadi group, Jaish-e-Muhammad, the Lashkar loyalists could put Pakistan “up in flames,” the officer admitted.

Despite that risk, the jihadis “were good people” and could be controlled, the officer said, speaking on the condition of anonymity in keeping with the agency’s custom.

Obama administration officials say they continue to press the Pakistanis to guarantee prevention of a sequel to November’s Mumbai attacks, in which more than 160 people were killed in a rampage across two five-star hotels, a Jewish center and a busy train station.

A surprise confession last week of the sole surviving attacker made clear that Lashkar-e-Taiba has the capacity to quickly and inexpensively train young men from villages into intensely driven, proficient killers, a senior Obama administration official said.

The attacker, Ajmal Kasab, 21, has described receiving training in camps in Muzaffarabad, the capital of Pakistani-held Kashmir, and in Manshera, a northwest town.

His account has been largely discounted in Pakistan as being forced by Indian investigators, but many details conform to descriptions of Lashkar operations offered by two former members. The members, who said they had friendly relations with Lashkar-e-Taiba, said that at least one Lashkar training camp was still operating in the hills around Muzaffarabad.

Pakistan said it had severed ties to Lashkar-e-Taiba in the wake of the Sept. 11 attacks, under pressure from the Bush administration to join its campaign against terrorism. The interior minister, Rehman Malik, said in an interview that the group’s infrastructure was “no more intact.”

But Obama administration officials say they are still trying to understand the state of relations between Pakistan and the group. Among the most likely versions, they say, none would tamp down hostilities between Pakistan and India.

The possibilities include that Lashkar-e-Taiba remains a lever of the Pakistani state; that the group and others have realigned themselves quietly behind the interests of Pakistan and could be used covertly; and that the groups have broken away from the official security apparatus and are running independently. ....

[Merlin]

Oh, no. India is going to be very unhappy about this.

Pakistan court adjourns leaving Lashkar founder free

ISLAMABAD, Aug 3 (Reuters) - Pakistan's Supreme Court adjourned an appeal hearing on Monday to decide whether to re-arrest the founder of a militant group said to have been behind the attacks on Mumbai last November.

Hafiz Saeed, who headed Lashkar-e-Taiba before moving to its charity front, was detained after the Mumbai attacks after a U.N. Security Council resolution put him on a list of people and organisations supporting al Qaeda.

The Lahore High Court, to India's frustration, freed Saeed in June due to a lack of evidence against him. Pakistan has appealed against Saeed's release, but ministers have said India should furnish better evidence against him.

On Saturday, India gave Pakistan a new dossier of evidence to investigate the Mumbai attacks and to prosecute Saeed. ....

Peace talks between the nuclear armed rivals were suspended after the Mumbai attacks, but last month they agreed to restart dialogue, without resuming the peace process.

India wants Pakistan to punish those responsible for the deaths of 166 people in Mumbai and dismantle the "infrastructure of terrorism".

India is also waiting for Pakistan to start in earnest the trial of five militants being held at Adiala jail in Rawalpindi for their alleged role in the Mumbai plot. ....

Saeed quit Lashkar in the days following the militant group's attack on the Indian parliament in December 2001, but stayed as head of the Jamaat-ud-Dawa (JuD), a charity that has been placed on both U.N. and U.S. lists of terrorist organisations.

[antimony]

Oh, no. India is going to be very unhappy about this.

Pakistan court adjourns leaving Lashkar founder free

Prof,

I am certainly not saying that Pakistan would actually do anytyhing here, but this news just relates an adjourment.

IIRC, the hearing would still be held, albeit at a later date

[Merlin]

I understand although technically it is just a court adjournment, practically it means Saeed walks out free on an indefinite court adjournment. No new date has been fixed.

Look what consensus on terror means in Pakistan!

4 Aug [EconomicTimes] NEW DELHI: In yet another blow to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's Pakistan's policy, Jamaat-ud-Dawa chief Hafiz Saeed, the mastermind of the attack on Mumbai, has been allowed to remain free.

Pakistan's Supreme Court on Monday indefinitely adjourned the hearing of the petitions, which were filed by the federal and provincial governments, challenging Saeed's release from detention.

This development follows Islamabad's stated position that India has not provided enough evidence to prove Saeed's role in the Mumbai terror attacks — a contention that has been denied only two days ago with home minister P Chidambaram saying that there is ‘enough evidence' against the Dawa chief. The evidence was presented to Pakistan in the three dossiers India has handed over to Pakistan on the Mumbai terror attacks.

Hopes are diminishing within the Indian establishment about Pakistan taking action against the JuD chief. And the focus is now on the trial against the five LeT suspects. ....

[antimony]

I understand although technically it is just a court adjournment, practically it means Saeed walks out free on an indefinite court adjournment. No new date has been fixed.

Look what consensus on terror means in Pakistan!

Ah, I see, an indefinite adjoirment.:(

You are right, in that case.
The whole thing is two faced, especially in light of this statement

This development follows Islamabad's stated position that India has not provided enough evidence

In that case, the administration cannot even proceed with a chargesheet, so why did they bother with this show of a court case anyway?

just goes to show this is all a sham