Pakistan has routinely targeted various terrorist groups operating within its borders, but its overall strategy, argues Bill Reggio in recent congressional testimony, is to support several other jihadist organizations both at home and in Afghanistan. Among the most prominent of these is Jaish-e-Mohammed, which was involved in the kidnapping and murder of Daniel Pearl, and its ally Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT):
LeT operates openly inside Pakistan and has offices throughout the country. . . .[Its] headquarters, [located] near Lahore, is a sprawling complex that is used to indoctrinate future jihadists before they are sent off for military training. . . .
[LeT’s] terrorist infrastructure was used to conduct . . . terrorist attacks in India and Afghanistan. The most prominent attack took place in Mumbai, when a suicide assault team fanned out across the city and targeted multiple locations, including a theater, a train station, hotels, and a Jewish center, killing 164 people. The attack lasted for three days.
Indian intelligence traced phone calls back to handlers in Pakistan as the assault was ongoing. The handlers directed its fighters to execute non-Muslims, often brutally, and laughed when their instructions were carried out. After the attack, Interpol issued arrest warrants for two serving senior Pakistani army officers and a retired major.
Despite LeT’s overt ties to al-Qaeda and its campaign of terror in India and Afghanistan, the Pakistani government refuses to crack down on this group.
Read more on Long War Journal: http://www.longwarjournal.org/archives/2016/07/pakistan-friend-or-foe-in-the-fight-against-terrorism.php