Then the US Secretary of State Colin Powell, in a notification on December 26, 2001, designated the outfit as a foreign terrorist organisation.

However, the biggest blow to Lashkar came when Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf ordered a ban on it along with four other Islamist groups in January 2002, under severe post-9/11 pressure from the United States and the threat of an Indo-Pak war after the Parliament attack on December 13, 2001.

Till the ban, Lashkar was able to operate openly inside Pakistan, raising funds and recruiting new cadre because of its role in the fight in Kashmir. In fact, neither Lashkar nor its parent group Markaz had ever been involved in sectarian violence inside Pakistan.

According to the Herald, a leading Pakistani magazine, the Lashkar would provide two types of military training to its cadre—a 21-day basic course called ‘Daura Aam’ and a three-month advanced course called ‘Daura Khas’. The advanced course prepares the cadre for full-fledged guerrilla war with in-depth training in arms, bomb-making (especially improvised explosive devices), surprise ambushes and also techniques for survival in difficult living conditions.

The Fidayeens—a special group—however, receive ideological training as well, which is generally based on the Islamic belief of ‘‘life after death’’.

Standing Apart

IN fact, Lashkar’s fidayeen or suicide operations, too, are different from all other suicide militancy across the world, be it the LTTE’s Black Tigers, who consume cyanide to avoid being captured alive, or even Islamist groups like the Hezbollah in Lebanon and Hamas in Palestine, who strap explosives around their bodies or ram an explosive-laden vehicle on the target.

... contd.