Pakistan Conflict Monitor

Lashkar-e-Taiba Increasingly Independent, Ambitious: Report

Lashkar-i-Taiba: The Fallacy of Subservient Proxies and the Future of Islamist Terrorism in India, US Army War College // Strategic Studies Institute, 18 March 2010

EXCERPT: "A discussion of the foundation of Lashkar-i-Taiba (LeT), the development of its modus operandi, and engages in an investigation of LeT’s activities in India, Pakistan, and the Kashmir region are discussed. Further, LeT’s fundraising methods are touched upon, and LeT’s relationships with regional state and nonstate actors such as Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) and Dawood Ibrahim’s D-Company are analyzed. Also, the impact that these developments have on domestic Islamist terrorism in India are addressed. The author argues that although LeT has been a vital component of Islamabad’s regional strategy in the past, the organization has grown beyond the control of its former patron, is largely self-sufficient and operates independently of the political process, and has expanded its agenda well beyond Kashmir. [...] However, contrary to many analyses, LeT is not likely to sacrifice its independence and come under Al-Qaeda’s umbrella. Rather, LeT will continue to evolve into a distinctive, South Asia-centric terrorist actor in its own right while still receiving aid from fringe elements in Pakistan’s security and intelligence apparatus and elsewhere."

Read the full report.

Related articles:
US citizen David Coleman Headley admits role in Mumbai attacks, The Washington Post, 19 March 2010
Afghanistan's new great game: The undeclared wars within war, Deutsche-Welle, 14 March 2010

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US worries LeT might trigger India-Pakistan war, 11 March 2010
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Report: International Terrorism and Transnational Crime

International Terrorism and Transnational Crime: Security Threats, U.S. Policy, and Considerations for Congress [pdf], Congressional Research Service, 5 January 2010

EXCERPT: "Dawood Ibrahim’s D-Company, a 5,000-member criminal syndicate operating mostly in Pakistan, India, and the United Arab Emirates, provides an example of the criminal-terrorism 'fusion' model. The U.S. Department of Treasury designated Ibrahim as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist (SDGT) under Executive Order 13224 in October 2003. In June 2006, President George W. Bush designated him, as well as his D-Company organization, as a Significant Foreign Narcotics Trafficker under the Foreign Narcotics Kingpin Designation Act (hereafter 'Kingpin Act'). D-Company is reportedly involved in several criminal activities, including extortion, smuggling, narcotics trafficking, and contract killing. . . Ibrahim moved his organization’s headquarters to Karachi, Pakistan. There, D-Company is believed to have both deepened its strategic alliance with the ISI and developed links to Lashkar-e-Tayyiba (LeT), which was designated by the United States as a foreign terrorist organization (FTO) in 2001. During this time period, some say D-Company began to finance LeT’s activities, use its companies to lure recruits to LeT training camps, and give LeT operatives use of its smuggling routes and contacts."

Read the full report [pdf].

Related articles:
India wants its "Osama" back, Asia Times Online, 9 December 2008
US and India see link to militants in Pakistan, The New York Times, 2 December 2008
Behind the terror: The role of organized crime [transcript from radio show], NPR, 4 December 2008

Related posts:
Selective counter-terrorism a "defective strategy": Report, 21 December 2009