New Delhi: The Lashkar-e-Taiba has released posters saying it will hold public prayers to honour two terrorists killed in Kashmir last week, defying commitments by the Pakistan government to rein in the jihadist group in return for the country being removed from a global sanctions watchlist. The posters say Namaz-e-Ghaibana — funeral rites held in the absence of a body — will be held Friday morning at Khai Gala, near Barmang on the outskirts of Rawalakot.
The gathering is the first public event announced by the Lashkar since its chief and 26/11 organiser Hafiz Muhammad Saeed was convicted of terrorism financing two years ago.
Elections are scheduled to be held in Kashmir beginning on 7 May, and the Lashkar’s reemergence on the public stage is raising fears that terrorist violence could lead to a Pulwama-type crisis, a senior Indian intelligence official told ThePrint.
Lashkar terrorists Abdul Wahab, also known by the alias Abu Saifullah, and Sanam Jafar, were killed near Sopore in north Kashmir in a firefight with Indian forces, which began Thursday night.
The firefight followed a separate Lashkar ambush on troops conducting a cordon and search operation in the Renji forests near Bandipora, in which two Indian soldiers were injured.
Al-Quds — an encrypted online forum that disseminates Lashkar propaganda — said Wahab was the fifth resident of Barmang killed fighting in Kashmir. The men were described as “great warriors who were martyred fighting the tyrannical Indian Army”.
“The martyrs are calling on us not to forget their sacrifice of blood,” it added.
Funeral events like these have been important tools for the Lashkar to draw followers, scholar C. Christine Fair has written. “These ceremonies are typically held in a sports field or some similar location, to accommodate the large crowds that assemble for the occasion,” she records.
Last testaments prepared by the slain terrorists are read out, which often “beseech their family members to destroy their television sets and CD players because the music and film accessed through these media reflect the corrosive ‘Hindu culture.’”
Lashkar literature contains several stories of mothers encouraging their sons to wage jihad. “Fight those (Hindu) transgressors bravely, and dispatch to hell as many of those enemies of Allah as you can,” the mother of one jihadist urges him before he travels to Kashmir, according to Fair’s record.
The mothers of killed terrorists use these gatherings to tell other women about their stories and impress upon them the importance of giving their sons to jihad. Lashkar literature holds that a shaheed, or martyr, will be able to intercede with God to ensure his family is admitted to Paradise.
Like older Namaz-e-Ghaibana functions, the one scheduled Friday welcomes women, though the poster urges that “they fully observe Purdah,” or veiling.
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The jihadist pushback
For several months now, jihadist groups have been challenging restrictions on their activities imposed by the Pakistan government after 2019, as it struggled to evade sanctions threatened by the multinational Financial Action Task Force (FATF).
Last week, Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) chief Masood Azhar Alvi — claimed by Pakistan to be hiding out in Afghanistan under Taliban patronage — resurfaced to reach out to followers on social media.
Earlier, in February, several dozen JeM cadres armed with swords marched through Rawalakot. The organisation also held rallies to support jihadists in Kashmir and Gaza in February, following that up with a series of rallies in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province.
Led by Hafiz Abdul Rauf — a cleric sanctioned by the US government on terror-financing charges — the Lashkar had also involved itself in flood-relief work last summer, as inspectors from the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) prepared to visit the country.
The jihadist group’s volunteers, social media posts revealed, raised funds in Lahore and smaller cities across Pakistan’s flood-ravaged southern Punjab. The organisation also distributed blankets, opened food kitchens and promised to help rebuild tens of thousands of destroyed homes.
Lashkar operatives wore vests identifying them as members of the Allah-o-Akbar Tehreek — a political party founded by Lashkar chief Saeed.
Following the secret trial and conviction of key 26/11 perpetrator Sajid Mir, Rauf had emerged as the public face of the Lashkar, urging followers to show they were “unafraid of punishment put in the way of inviting the world to Islam”.
Following the fall of Kabul to the Taliban in 2021, Rauf gave another speech, attacking the United States and hailing “the victory of Islam and the Muslims”.
“There are several explanations for why jihadist groups are reemerging, despite Pakistan’s financial problems and the risks of facing FATF sanctions again,” analyst Marvi Sirmed told ThePrint.
“The army could be seeking to rebuild its ties to loyal jihadist clients, in the face of attack from anti-state actors like the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan. Or, it could be signalling to India that it is upset with the threats Indian leaders have made to attack Pakistan,” said Sirmed.
“Alternately,” she observes, “this renewed visibility could just be an effort by jihadists to test how committed the Pakistan government is about its promises to shut them down.”
A lackadaisical crackdown
Ever since it was placed on the FATF’s ‘grey list’ in 2018, Pakistan has sought to demonstrate that it has become serious about fighting terrorism. Pakistan, however, was removed from the FATF grey list in October, 2022, after it met several conditions, including action against United Nations-designated terrorist groups like the LeT and Jaish.
In February 2020, LeT chief Hafiz Saeed was sentenced to two consecutive five-year sentences on terrorism-financing charges, and received another 32-year sentence in April. His deputies, Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi and Abdul Rehman Makki, also received prison sentences — though none of the prosecutions was directly related to 26/11.
The long history of top Lashkar leaders being sent to prison, only to reemerge months later, has, however, led to scepticism in India about Pakistan’s seriousness. “Even if Saeed is technically not roaming the streets, the Government of Pakistan’s inability to win the legal case against him is embarrassing,” then United States ambassador Anne Patterson noted in a secret diplomatic cable in 2009.
Following his conviction in 2020, Saeed was moved out of Lahore’s Kot Lakhpat jail and moved back to his white, three-storey home at 116E Johar Town — where he was targeted for assassination in a bombing, which Pakistan alleges was carried out by Indian intelligence services.
Since 9/11, Saeed has been jailed at least nine times — only to be released weeks later.
(Edited by Richa Mishra)
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