Kunwar Khuldune Shahid
Indian Army Colonel Sofiya Qureshi speaks as Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri looks on during a press conference regarding Operation Sindoor, May 7, 2025. Behind them, a map shows the locations struck by India, purported “terrorist camps” in Pakistan-administered Kashmir and Pakistan.Credit: Government of India
The clashes between India and Pakistan in May – the closest the two nuclear-armed neighbors have come to a full-blown war since 1999 – hinged over the status of India-bound jihadist groups in Pakistan, led by the Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT). India struck various sites in Pakistan, which it claimed were training camps of the LeT, the Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM), and the Hizbul Mujahideen (HM). Together, these groups form the jihadist umbrella dedicated to “liberating Kashmir from Indian occupation.”
New Delhi’s strikes came as reaction to last month’s attack in Pahalgam town of Indian-administered Kashmir, claimed by the LeT-allied The Resistance Front, in which 26 civilians, nearly all tourists, were gunned down. Islamabad denies any connection with the militant raid and points to the fact that both Lashkar-e-Taiba and Jaish-e-Mohammed are banned in Pakistan.
The LeT was founded by Hafiz Muhammad Saeed in 1990 out of former anti-Soviet jihadists. Following the collapse of the Soviet Union, the LeT remained aligned with regional jihadist outfits, notably al-Qaida and the Taliban, but dedicated its focus to the Kashmir jihad in the 1990s. The group carried out numerous raids in India with the backing of Pakistan’s security agencies. After being designated as a terror outfit by the U.S. post-9/11, the LeT, along with the JeM, was banned in Pakistan in 2002. However, some of the group’s deadliest maneuvers in India came in the aftermath of the ban, including the Delhi bombings in 2005 and the 2008 Mumbai attacks.
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