Lakshar-e-Taiba
Lakshar-e-Toiba
Lashkar-e-Tauba
The Lashkar-e-Taiba group is thought to contain numerous non Kashmiris - possibly members of the Taleban movement of Afghanistan - which are thought to be unwilling to be seen to make any concessions at all to India. The Muslim militant groups based in Pakistan threatened to kill Americans to avenge comrades killed in the August 1998 American cruise missile attacks on of Osama bin Laden's terrorist training camps in Afghanistan. Pakistani militants killed in the US attacks were members of Lakshar-e-Taiba and Hizb-ul-Mujahideen. A total of eight of their members died. In November 1998 Lakshar organized a religious gathering of 50,000 youths near Lahore, at which participants chanted slogans in support of bin Laden and vowed to avenge the US attack on his camps. Pakistani officials estimated the three-day gathering cost organizers about $1 million. It is unclear whether any of the funding came from bin Laden. The gathering was one expression of what the State Department has acknowledged to be "considerable public sympathy and overt support" for bin Laden in Pakistan. According to Indian officials, the Laskhar-e-Toiba and Shora-e-Jehad coordinate their operations with both the Babbar Khalsa International and the International Sikh Youth Federation [ISYF].
On 03 November 1999 Lakshar-e-Toiba launched a "suicide squad" assault on the center of Indian rule in Kashmir, attacking the army's 15th Corps Command, which oversees all military operations in Kashmir.
At least seven Indian soldiers and two militants were killed in the attack, the first ever by Muslim militants on army headquarters. By all accounts the dramatic assault on army headquarters caught the garrison by surprise. It took garrison forces several hours to secure the area and several headquarters buildings were reported heavily damaged in the fighting. The attack was the latest in a series of assaults that Muslim militants carried out over the previous several months against Indian security installations in Kashmir.
