Lashkar terror multiplies, co-founder forms new group

Pakistan's own protege terror group Lashkar-e-Taiba has split, rattled by infighting. US-designated terrorist and co-founder of Lashkar, Maulana Amir Hamza has formed the Jaish-e-Manqafa. WION is in the process of verifying reports on the split that, so far, are unconfirmed. Still, bifurcating and multiplying into multiple terror outfits – all with the same goal, that of murder – is nothing new in Pakistan. So just who is Hamza, the new-old terrorist on the block? Senior foreign editor Padma Rao takes a look.

It’s called binary fission, the process by which single-celled organisms like amoebae multiply several times over and proliferate unhindered. With unrestricted help, support and arms from Pakistan's government and army, Pakistan terror groups like the Lashkar-e-Taiba have made binary fission a fine art over decades. Take a look at the multiple faces of one single murderous group.

It all began in 1985 with the Jamaat-ud-Dawa founded by hate-spewing preacher, Maulana Amir Hamza. That soon merged with another charity front, the Markaz-ud-Dawa in 1996. Four years later and with a generous funding from al-Qaida founder Osama bin Laden, the Lashkar-e-Taiba was born. It continues to receive weapons training camps, arms and ammunition from the Pakistan army and full encouragement to repeat terror acts like the 26/11 terror attacks in Mumbai. The Lashkar taps suicide bombing talent early – through its children's magazine called "Little Mujahid".

When the entire global community - except Islamabad’s best friend China and some other rogue states - began to ban Lashkar, it simply bifurcated again. This time, it formed new trusts – the Tehreek e Tahafuz Qibla Awwal, the Al-Anfal trust and the Tehreek-e-Hurmat-e-Rasool. But of course, it still set aside about USD five million for terror strikes. The United States tried banning all of them again so – the Lashkar simply decided to lend itself some respectability by forming the Milli Muslim League, a so-called political party. But the Trump administration went a step further and ordered Islamabad to turn the taps on funding for terror groups.

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And that’s what has now split the Lashkar. Infighting broke out within the LeT over sharing the reduced funding and – voila – the amoeba has bifurcated again. While Hafiz Saeed will continue as Lashkar’s chief, Maulana Amir Mirza of the so-called charitable wing, Jamaat-ud-Dawa will now inaugurate another terror group called the Jaish-e-Manqafa.