Post-Pulwama, while India’s counter-terror offensive has been predominantly aimed at Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM), the fact remains that it is the Lashkar-e-Tayyeba (LeT) that is more lethal with a global footprint and direct support from Pakistan’s covert agency Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) in planning, incubation and execution of terror attacks on targets in the Indian hinterland.
While the LeT had killed as many as 166 people at one go during the terror hit in Mumbai on 26/11 in 2008, the number of fatalities inflicted by the JeM during the last two decades is less than the casualty figure recorded by the former in just one incident in 2008.
ISI officers were directly involved in the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks and two of them are accused in the case. This is a clear pointer of the ISI’s direct patronage of the LeT and its insidious plans against India. On the other hand, the Jaish’s operations are largely independent with limited cooperation of the Pakistan military-ISI combine in the execution of terror attacks by the group.
The Jaish has developed a mini industry of making weapons through reverse engineering in Darra Adam Khel in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and buys orphans like the LeT from areas hit by natural calamities like cyclone and tsunamis who are subsequently trained as suicide bombers at various facilities in Pakistan, including the one that was destroyed during the air strike by the Indian Air Force at Balakot.
While the JeM has presence in Jammu & Kashmir and certain areas of Pakistan, the LeT has a major footprint in countries in the region like Sri Lanka, Myanmar, Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia, Maldives, Bangladesh and even in the European countries.
Retired Intelligence officials pointed out as to why any action like a drone strike was not conducted against LeT chief Hafiz Sayeed who has travelled in the Pakistan Occupied Kashmir (POK) over a dozen times during the last five years.
They also rued the lack of a sustained and comprehensive counter-terror offensive against the Pakistan-sponsored terror directed against India.
India has been pushing a ban against JeM chief Masood Azhar at the UN but has so far been stalled singlehandedly by China.
The combined death toll inflicted by the JeM since the Parliament attack of 2001, attack on the Jammu & Kashmir Assembly (2001), Uri, Pathankot and Pulwama during the Modi Government at the Centre is a little over 100.
The then IB special director Ajit Doval who is presently the National Security Advisor was part of the Indian team that escorted Masood Azhar along with Mushtaq Ahmad Zargar and Ahmad Omar Saeed Shaikh to Afghanistan in exchange for the passengers of the hijacked IC 814 passengers.