Foreign Policy Research Institute A Nation Must Think Before it Acts The Evolution of Pakistan’s Lashkar-e-Tayyiba Terrorist Group
The Evolution of Pakistan’s Lashkar-e-Tayyiba Terrorist Group

The Evolution of Pakistan’s Lashkar-e-Tayyiba Terrorist Group

Abstract

Ten years ago, Lashkar-e-Tayyiba launched an attack that paralyzed the Indian megacity of Mumbai for days. The operation, occurring in the midst of major instability and violence in Pakistan, raised concerns that Lashkar—the Pakistani military’s most powerful proxy—had gone rogue and would now operate as an unrestrained global jihadist organization. However, it subsequently became clear that the operation in Mumbai was actually a product of Lashkar’s long-standing ties with the Pakistani military. The past ten years have further solidified their close relationship. Far from going rogue, the group has remained responsive to the Pakistani security establishment’s agenda in India, Afghanistan, and at home. The past decade has only reduced the policy options available to counter the group, while the constant danger looms that it will conduct an attack that precipitates a war between India and Pakistan—two nuclear powers.

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