south-asian-militant-groups-and-global-jihad-in-2015

QUILL IAM
3. Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) stems from its above-ground parent organisation,
Jam’at-ud-Dawa (JuD). It has recently shifted focus from J&K and India to
an international audience:
This group is feared for its links to AQ and the Taliban. Some see
LeT as a part-time ally of AQ, others see the two as great rivals. The
group has several cells in Middle Eastern countries, as well as in
the US and in Germany. The majority of LeT operatives are
Pakistanis (often Punjabis) and it is cited as the most ‘lethal’
terrorist group that is operating from South Asia. 13
JuD leader Hafiz Saeed lives freely in Pakistan, to the chagrin of
India, and, although he denies his association with LeT, he
maintains that LeT leader Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi was not involved
in the Mumbai attacks 14 .
The group is purported to have carried out reconnaissance
missions intending to target a Danish cartoonist. 15 They began
operations in India in 1993, and since then, they have been
implicated in hundreds of attacks in India; the most famous of
which are the 2008 attacks in Mumbai, where LeT killed over 164
people in a series of 12 targeted attacks that lasted a total of four
days.
LeT is said to have a force of approximately 750 fighters. 16
LeT is also a widespread social welfare organization, with more
than 50,000 registered members spreading its influence and
raising funds. 17 It also operates several important social welfare
programmes, including but not limited to the development and
maintenance of hospitals, blood banks, and food banks.
Within Europe, Britain is a major centre for its fundraising among
the Pakistani immigrant population 18 . LeT's illegal fundraising
activities include false trade invoicing, counterfeiting, extortion,
and involvement in the drug trade.
4. Harket-ul Jihad al-Islami (HuJI) is a parent organization of several
important offshoots (see Figure 2):
At one point, HuJI had merged with its own offshoot Harkat-ul-
Mujahideen (HuM) under the name Harkat-ul-Ansar, however the
two groups eventually parted.
HuJI is an AQ member and founder of Brigade 313, Al Qaeda’s
military arm in Pakistan.
Comprising of 700 cadres, HuJI has not claimed the most casualties,
nor is it the largest group; however, it is recognised as the parent
16