PROFILING THE LASHKAR-E-TAIBA

This article profi les the Lashkar-e-Taiba, the Pakistani Jihadist organisation held responsible for the December 2008 terror attacks in Mumbai, India. The article elucidates the ideology, strategic objectives, evolution, organisational structure and methods of indoctrination and training of the organisation. These need to be comprehended in the context of the LeT’s ter-rorist capability. Evidence is given from Jihadist discourse from the Mujallul ud Dawa, the offi cial publication of the LeT. The terrorist attacks in Mumbai in 2008, which killed 170 people and lasted for 60 hours, once again brought the Pakistani–jihadist linkage into the spotlight. The Mumbai attack, described as the Indian 9/11, caused serious escalation of hostilities between India and Pakistan. Although the Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) has been in existence for a long time in Pakistan, its presence has largely been overlooked or at best given a superfi cial treatment by western observers, that is, until the attack in Mumbai. Many observers see the LeT as a militant organisation focused on the Jihad in Kashmir. However, after a detailed analysis of the LeT’s evolutionary process, it becomes ap-parent that the organisation developed linkages with global Islamist organisations like the Al Qaeda and the Taliban primarily as a result of the discovery of a symbolic common enemy in the shape of America and its allies. The LeT has demonstrated its capability to launch a devastating fi dayeen attack on the scale of the Mumbai attacks. These attacks place the LeT on par with many better-known and understood global Jihadist organisations. It is vital to comprehend the organisational structure, training methods and indoctrination strategies of the LeT, particularly in order to understand and combat this latest entrant to the global terror scene