New Delhi: The Lashkar-e-Tayiba has been infected by the Jaish-e-Mohammad bug. Both outfits have been witnessing internal discord and while the Jaish-e-Mohammad has been attempting to rebuild its infrastructure, that is not the case with the Lashkar-e-Tayiba.
Both these terror groups had faced immense losses when the Indian armed forces carried out ‘Operation Sindoor’ to avenge the Pahalgam terror attack in which 26 people were killed in Kashmir.
Officials say that the Lashkar-e-Tayiba is not responding to both the Pakistan Army as well as the ISI since the past couple of weeks.
The founder and chief of the Lashkar-e-Tayiba, Hafiz Saeed, has gone into a shell and has not been mingling with any of his cadre.
The official said that what is interesting is that while Saeed refuses to speak, some of his other commanders have been publicly acknowledging the losses incurred by their outfit during the operation.
Repeated calls to rebuild the Muridke training facility have been ignored. Neither do any of the commanders nor the top brass seem to be interested in putting the training facility back in shape.
The Indian Intelligence agencies have been able to gather that there is no activity there and initial reports of it being put back in place do not appear to be true.
An Intelligence Bureau official said that this is a deliberate strategy by the Lashkar-e-Tayiba. The reality is something else and the Pakistan establishment wants everyone to believe that they came out victorious during ‘Operation Sindoor’.
While at first the leadership did play along, today that dynamic has drastically changed. The outfit and its members do not want the army to take credit for a battle that it clearly did not win, the official added.
While the army and ISI want the people to believe they’re part of the story, outfits such as the Jaish-e-Mohammad and Lashkar-e-Tayiba do not want to play along.
At first the Lashkar-e-Tayiba did play along and showed some signs of staging a major comeback. However, there are plenty of indications that ‘Operation Sindoor’ has changed the dynamics.
The cadres are constantly questioning the leadership as to why it is silent about the war that Pakistan got into with the Afghan Taliban.
Second, the fact that the Lashkar-e-Tayiba is being expected to team up with the Islamic State to fight against the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) and the Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA), has not gone down well with several members of the outfit.
Another official said that these developments are extremely interesting. There appears to be a revolt against the ISI and army. What makes this interesting is that this is the first time that the Lashkar is not playing along with what the ISI and army expects them to do.
Even the Jaish-e-Mohammad had revolted in the past and attempted the assassination of former Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf. That has never been the case where the Lashkar-e-Tayiba is concerned, the official added.
Prior to the Mumbai 26/11 attacks, the ISI had noticed that many within the Lashkar-e-Tayiba were trying to step away and revolt against the leadership. They wanted to go to Afghanistan and fight alongside the Taliban who were battling the western forces.
The Mumbai attack, originally planned by Ilyas Kashmir, the head of the 313 Brigade of the Al-Qaeda, was then sanctioned to be carried out by the Lashkar-e-Tayiba. This was a move made by the ISI to keep the cadres distracted and also away from Afghanistan, as the establishment did not want to anger the western forces.
‘Operation Sindoor’ has changed that equation and it is no longer a Lashkar-e-Tayiba that would listen entirely to the establishment, another official said.
The official explained that ‘Operation Sindoor’ did not just take down terror infrastructure, but also broke the morale of these terror groups.
If the Lashkar-e-Tayiba indeed revolts, then that would be a massive change in dynamics between the terror group and the ISI and army, the official explained.
(IANS)
