'The extremists who hit Mumbai are poised to strike again: Lashkar-e-Taiba now has global ambitions', Macleans, 2 December 2009
EXCERPT: "It is widely believed that the assault on Mumbai was carried out by the Pakistani Islamist group Lashkar-e-Taiba. . . The organization was created in the late 1980s by Pakistan’s largest spy agency, the Directorate for Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI). According to Bruce Riedel, a former CIA officer who, earlier this year, chaired an inter-agency review of American policy toward Pakistan and Afghanistan for the White House, this was done with co-operation and funding from Osama bin Laden, who then had a base in the Pakistani city of Peshawar. Although in its early days the group sent fighters to join the anti-Soviet mujahedeen in Afghanistan, Lashkar’s main mission was to fight Indian rule in Kashmir, a disputed region split between China, India, and Pakistan, but with the latter two both contesting the area held by the other. Its members soon targeted India directly. Last November’s massacre in Mumbai was only the most recent of several attacks on Indian soil over the past decade. Pakistani officials say they cut off contact with the LeT after Sept. 11, 2001. But clearly ties still exist between Lashkar and the ISI. . . Although the LeT’s main goal remains driving India out of Kashmir, its links to other transnational jihadist groups, and its activities beyond South Asia, suggest it is developing a broader agenda."
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Related articles:
LeT has a free run in Pakistan, Daily News & Analysis India, 2 December 2009
Mumbai anniversary: Militant leader denies orchestrating terror attacks, The Guardian, 26 November 2009
Mumbai rampage "killed talks on Kashmir", The National, 24 November 2009
Mumbai handlers in Pakistan cheer after ordering murders over phone [blog], The Long War Journal, 7 January 2009
Related reports:
Mumbai terror attacks - dossier of evidence, The Hindu, 5 January 2009
Related posts:
Lashkar-e-Taiba: One year after Mumbai, 26 November 2009
Seven charged over Mumbai attacks, 25 November 2009
Lashkar-e-Taiba: The new global threat?, 24 November 2009
