Operation Sindoor targets 9 locations: Links to LeT and JeM, how they’ve attacked India in the past

As The Indian Express has reported, Bahawalpur, which faces the Rajasthan frontier across the Thar desert, has been a stronghold of the Jaish-e-Mohammed, led by Maulana Masood Azhar. The Jamia Masjid Subhan Allah here is believed to be a hub of the JeM. Muridke near Lahore is the home of the Hafiz Saeed-led terror outfit Lashkar-e-Taiba. It houses the Markaz-e-Taiba, the base camp of the Lashkar-e-Taiba.

These two terror outfits have a long history of attacks against India. Here’s what to know about Jaish-e-Mohammed and Lashkar-e-Taiba’s anti-India activities, and their hubs targeted today.

Jaish-e-Mohammed

Jaish-e-Mohammed or the Army of Mohammed (other names include Khuddam Ul Islam and Tehrik ul-Furqaan) was founded by Masood Azhar in the early 2000s. Azhar was designated a global terrorist by the UN in 2019.

India had arrested Azhar in 1994, but in 1999, Indian Airlines Flight 814 was hijacked, and Azhar was freed in return for the safety of the flight passengers. After his return to Pakistan, Azhar formed the Jaish-e-Mohammed, with the group’s main aims being “uniting” Kashmir with Pakistan and expelling the foreign troops then present in Afghanistan.

“Supporters [of the JeM] are mostly Pakistanis and Kashmiris, but also include Afghans and Arab veterans of the Afghan war against the Soviets. The group uses light and heavy machine guns, assault rifles, mortars, improvised explosive devices, and rocket-propelled grenades in its attacks. The US State Department designated JEM a Foreign Terrorist Organization in 2001,” the US National Counterterrorism Center (NCTC) says.

The attacks against India by the JeM include the 1999 IC-814 Hijack, the 2001 J&K Assembly Attack, which killed 38 people; the 2001 Parliament Attack, which killed seven; attacks in Kashmir during 2014-15 following the hanging of Parliament attack convict Afzal Guru, leading to the deaths of over a dozen security personnel; the 2016 Pathankot attack, which killed six security personnel; the 2016 Uri attack in which 17 Army personnel were killed; and the 2019 Pulwama attack, which killed over 40 CRPF personnel.

Lashkar-e-Taiba

The Lashkar-e-Taiba and its co-founder Hafiz Saeed became household names in India after the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks, which killed more than 170 people. The Let also had a role in the 2006 Mumbai local train bombings, which killed more than 180 people, and in the 2010 German Bakery blast in Pune.

The LeT was formed before the JeM, in the late 1980s. It wants to bring Kashmir under Pakistan. According to the South Asia Terrorism Portal (SATP), “The LeT’s professed ideology goes beyond merely challenging India’s sovereignty over the State of Jammu and Kashmir. The Lashkar’s ‘agenda’… includes the restoration of Islamic rule over all parts of India.”

“The outfit’s headquarters (200 acres) is located at Muridke, 30 kms from Lahore, which was built with contributions and donations from the Middle East, with Saudi Arabia being the biggest benefactor. The headquarters houses a Madrassa (seminary), a hospital, a market, a large residential area for ‘scholars’ and faculty members, a fish farm and agricultural tracts. The LeT also reportedly operates 16 Islamic institutions, 135 secondary schools, an ambulance service, mobile clinics, blood banks and several seminaries across Pakistan,” the SATP says.

The LeT’s front organisation is Jamaat-ud-Dawa, a charitable organisation.

The USA’s NCTC says, “The group recruits internationally, as evidenced by the arrest in the United States of Jubair Ahmed in 2011, [David] Headley’s arrest in 2009, and the indictment in 2003 of 11 LT terrorists in Virginia.”

David Headley is an accused in the Mumbai attacks.