Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LeJ) is an Al-Qaeda-allied ostensibly banned terror outfit based in Punjab Province of Pakistan that has been in spotlight for the latest waves of genocidal attacks on Quetta’s minority Hazara community. In the latest attack on February 17, the group used a water-tanker full with 1000 kilograms of explosives. Following is a brief background about the emerging deadly group following the path of neo-Al-Qaedism that the international coalition against terror should be alarmed about. Those on hunger strike in Kabul in front of the UNAMA office against the killings in Quetta demanded that the group must be blacklisted by the UN for crimes against humanity.
LeJ is a militant wing of Sipah Sahaba Pakistan (SSP) banned in 2002 by former Government of General Musharraf. The group soon resumed operations under new names first as Millat Islamia Pakistan and later Ahl-e-Sunnat Wal Jamat (ASWJ).
Notorious suicide bombing trainer of Tehreek Taliban Pakistan’s Qari Hussain has strong links with LeJ and SSP leadership. Lashkar-e-Jhangvi is also known to have links with Haqqani Network and Al-Qaeda operatives in North Waziristan. Meanwhile, during the Taliban regime in Afghanistan, LeJ militants were trained in camps such as Badr, Muawiyeh and Waleed. After the fall of Taliban, these Pakistani sectarian terrorists fled back to the country.
SSP is an offshoot of Jamiat Ulema Islam (JUI), a Deobandi political party in Pakistan, which provided the bulk of Jihadi recruits for Taliban in 90s. Five notorious members of JUI in Punjab Maulana Haq Nawaz Jhangvi, Maulana Ziaur Rehman Farooqi, Maulana Esar-ul-Haq Qasmi and Maulana Azam Tariq established the SSP in September 1985 initially known as the Anjuman Sipah-e-Sahaba and they changed it to Sipah Sahaba Pakistan (SSP) later. It may be mentioned that SSP founder Maulana Haq Nawaz Jhangvi was Vice Chairman of JUI’s Punjab chapter.
Prominent Pakistani journalist Amir Mir in his book “True Faces of Jihadis” says LeJ is a splinter group of SSP. He says, “Launched in 1996, as a militant sectarian Sunni group, the Lashkar today is the most violent terrorist group operating within Pakistan with the help of a suicide-attack squad. Almost entire LeJ leadership is made up of people who have fought in Afghanistan. LeJ is a breakaway faction of SSP accusing its parent organization of deviating from the ideals of co-founder Haq Nawaz Jhangvi. It was launched in 1996 by Central Sectary of Broadcast and Publication of SSP, Riaz Basra and its current leader Malik Ishaq”. However, some other experts believe SSP and LeJ are two faces of the same coin. SSP is more with a political mask focusing on constitutional changes, while its militant wing LeJ continuing the terror.
According to Mir, after Riaz Basra became Salar Aalaa (Commander-in-Chief) of LeJ, using his Afghanistan contacts, he set up a chain of networks and started arms supply from Afghanistan to Punjab in Pakistan.
In the book, Mir also mentions the LeJ training camps in Eastern Afghanistan during the Taliban rule. Riaz Basra was chief of Khalid bin Waleed camp. He also tells us that LeJ has female suicide bombers, trained by Aziza, wife of a former Uzbekistan Islamic Movement leader in North Waziristan. Following 9/11 attacks, SSP joined the Pakistan-based pro-Taliban Council for Defense of Afghanistan and condemned ouster of Taliban by the US. In an interview later with BBC, Azam Tariq, the then SSP leader said to support Taliban in resistance.
According to Mir, when Azam Tariq joined the religious seminary Jamia Islamia in Karachi, he got introduced to Haq Nawaz Jhangvi, the then leader of SSP. Massoud Azhar of Jaish-e-Muhammad had close links with Haq Nawaz Jhangvi, who had once pledged to send 500,000 Jihadis to go to Kashmir. Azam Tariq was also a frequent visitor of Afghanistan under Taliban rule, where he had set up the training camps for SSP/LeJ militants.
LeJ is also involved in many attacks on foreigners in Pakistan. According to intelligence reports, LeJ was behind an attack on a church in Islamabad in March 2002 killing five westerners, including two Americans. In May 2002, 11 Frenchmen were blown up in Karachi. In January 2003, the US State Department added LeJ to its List of Foreign Terrorist Organizations.
Despite being on the list of FTO of the US State Department, Washington knows that LeJ has been operating freely in Pakistan. The blacklisting of LeJ by the US has been symbolic without any practical action against the terrorist organization involved in murder of American citizens and spreading terror.
Recently the Pakistani Supreme Court released Malik Ishaq, one of the founders and current leader of LeJ on July 14 because of “insufficient evidence produced by the prosecution”.
According to Pakistani media reports, Malik Ishaq was flown from jail in Lahore to Rawalpindi in 2009 on a military helicopter to negotiate with the al Qaeda-linked terrorists who had attacked the Generals Headquarters of Pakistan Army. Attackers were his former Jihadi recruits.
The South Asia Terrorism Portal website says, “the LeJ is organized into small cells of approximately five to eight cadres each, who operate independently of the others. Individual LeJ cadres are reportedly unaware of the number of cells in existence similar to their own or the structure of operations. After carrying out an attack LeJ cadres often disperse and then reassemble at the various training camps to plan future operations.”
They portal further says: “Many hardcore LeJ terrorists were given sanctuary in Afghanistan by the erstwhile Taliban regime. The Taliban leadership had consistently refused to hand over 21 wanted Pakistani terrorists to Islamabad, saying the fugitives, belonging to the SSP and the LeJ, were not on their soil. Pakistani authorities, however, repeatedly emphasized that these terrorists continued to live in the Afghan capital, Kabul before the US attacks in Afghanistan commenced. “
Following the ouster of Taliban, LeJ operatives found new patrons and supporters in North Waziristan among Al-Qaeda operatives, who used the group to launch attacks against Pakistani military in Karachi and other cities. LeJ became has become Pakistan’s deadliest terror groups.
Malik Ishaq still leads the group. According to latest Pakistani media reports, he is in an electoral alliance with country’s largest political party Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz based in Punjab.