Lashkar-e-Toiba
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Template:NPOV Lashkar-e-Toiba or Lashkar-i-Taiba (the Army of the Pure) (formed 1990) is a terrorist Islamist group based in Pakistan and active in carrying out terrorist attacks on Indian civilians and armed forces. It is the armed wing of Markaz Dawa-Wal-Irshad (the Centre for Religious Learning and Propagation), an Islamist organisation of the Wahabi sect of Islam. US Secretary of State Colin Powell in a notification on December 26, 2001 designated the outfit as a foreign terrorist organisation.
Lashkar-e-Toiba is responsible for the series of massacres on August 1-2, 2000, in which more than 100 people, most of who were unarmed civilians, were killed.
Lashkar-e-Toiba has an estimated strength of 300 terrorists and is believed to be headed by Mohammed Latif. It operates in the Srinagar valley and the districts of Poonch, Rajauri and Doda. It is active in other parts of India, especially New Delhi, and northen states. It is believed to run training camps at Kotli, Sialkot and Samani in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (Azad Kashmir).
Most observers agree that Lashkar-e-Toiba was founded, in 1992, by Pakistan's state security service, the Inter Services Intelligence or ISI, which for many years operated as a state within the Pakistani state. Most Lashkar-e-Toiba militants are not Kashmiris, but Pakistanis and veteran Afghanis.
Lashkar-e-Toiba practises suicide bombing against Indian military and civilian targets. The first suicide attacks was targeted at a residential complex of the Indian Border Security Force (BSF) in Bandipore near Srinagar. The most spectacular of these missions was the attack on the headquarters of the Special Operations Group (SOG) on December 27, 1999. By 2002 an estimated 250 Indian troops have been killed in these attacks.
India accuses Lashkar-e-Toiba of practising ethnic cleansing directed against Hindu residents of Kashmir, particularly in the Jammu Valley. There is independent evidence to support this allegation. On March 20, 2000, for example, Lashkar-e-Toiba terrorists killed 35 Hindu civilians at Chattisinghpora, and there have been other similar incidents.
Pakistan denies responsibility for Lashkar-e-Toiba's activities, But most evidence relating to its fund raising activities in Pakistan and the relative freedom with which its leaders operate in Pakistan indicate otherwise. Recent peace efforts and pressure by the Musharaff administration have led to a low profile, reduced operations and a change in name to Tehrik-e-Furqan.
It is suspected of involvement in the December 13, 2001 attack on the Parliament of India in New Delhi.
On January 16 2004, Randall Todd Royer, age 30, of Falls Church, Virginia, pleaded guilty to federal weapons and explosives charges in U.S. District Court in Alexandria, Virginia. Royer is one of 11 men originally charged in the case. Another is Ibrahim Ahmed al-Hamdi, age 26, of Alexandria, Virginia. Both were said to be members of Lashkar-e-Toiba and were part of a group of men who played paintball in the Virginia countryside to prepare for jihad training that could have targeted the United States, according to government prosecutors.
In 2005, Lashkar-e-Toiba was banned by the United Nations "for its links with Al Qaida".
External links
- Institute for Conflict Management's page on Lashkar-e-Toiba (http://www.ict.org.il/inter_ter/orgdet.cfm?orgid=81)
- South Asia Terrorism Portal's page on Lashkar-e-Toiba (http://www.satp.org/satporgtp/countries/india/states/jandk/terrorist_outfits/lashkar_e_toiba.htm)
- Lashkar-e-Toiba dictionary definition (http://www.webster-dictionary.org/definition/Lashkar-e-Toiba) from Webster's Online Dictionary
- Profile of Laskar-e-Toiba (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/3181925.stm) on BBC
- Center for Defense Information article (http://www.cdi.org/terrorism/lt.cfm)
- Banning Lashkar-e-Toiba raises more questions than it answers (http://www.amirbutler.com/archives/2003/11/17/16)
- BBC (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/3181925.stm) Profile: Lashkar-e-Toibahe:לשקאר א-טויבה