The Lashkar’s origins

In 1986, Hafiz Mohammad Sayeed and two other Pakistani professors—Dr Zaffar Iqbal (who took Abu Hamza as his alias) and Hafiz Abdur Rehman Makki, who is also a close relative of Sayeed—set up the Markaz-e-Dawa wal Irshad (Centre for Preaching and Guidance).

Sayeed, a professor in the Islamic Studies Department of the University of Engineering and Technology (Lahore), had been to Saudi Arabia for higher education in Islamic Studies, where he and the others got together with Saudi ulemas at the Madinah University. The connecting link and a major influence was Sheikh Abdullah Azzam—a Palestinian from Jenin refugee camp—who had links with Ikhawan-ul-Muslimoon (Muslim Brotherhood) of Egypt and a well-known ideologue of Afghan jihad. Soon after his return from Saudi Arabia, he along with the two other professors set up the Markaz in Muridke near Lahore.

A year later, the Lashkar-e-Toiba was launched with an aim to participate in the ... Afghan war. Its militants fought the Russians in the Jaji area of Paknea province along with the Afghan mujahideen outfit Itihad-e-Islami. But as the Afghan war was at its fag end, the group decided to shift its attention to Kashmir. According to security agencies, its Valley operations began in 1993. For years, the group kept a low profile, so much so that government agencies had little clue about its ideology and cadre. The first sensational attack carried out by the outfit was in July 1999, soon after the Kargil war, when it launched a fidayeen attack on a BSF camp in Bandipore. This brought the outfit and its top ideologue Hafiz Mohammad Sayeed in focus and ever since that July attack, the Lashkar and Sayeed have remained in the headlines.

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