Daily Times

Ministry of Interior (MoI), Pakistan designated Lashkar-e-Jhangvi al-Alami (LeJA) as proscribed/banned outfit on November 11, 2016 after recommendation by National Counter Terrorism Authority (NECTA) Pakistan on November 5, soon after the Police Training Center Quetta attack that occurred on October 25.

LeJA is not a new militant outfit as considered by the people of Pakistan or outside. If we dig out its history, it will take us to the first Pakistani anti- Shiite, Sunni-militant organisation Sipah-i-Sahaba Pakistan (SSP) that was founded by a sunni cleric Haq Nawaz Jhangvi in Punjab’s Jhang district right after the Iranian Revolution of 1979.

After the assassination of the founder of SSP, Maulana Haq Nawaz Jhangavi on February 22, 1990 by a rival militant outfit Sipah-i-Mohammad which was formed in the retaliation of SSP and known as a Shiite extremist outfit, it was separated into five factions and one main faction was the Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LeJ), which was formed by Riaz Basra, Malik Ishaq, Akram Lahori and Ghulam Rasool Shah, all formerly associated with SSP, in 1995. They formed LeJ as they considered that SSP was a step down from the cause of its founder Haq Nawaz Jhangvi after his assassination. All the five factions were later united in LeJ under the umbrella of Riaz Basra.

LeJ was known as the strongest anti-Shiite outfit of the country and his founder was accused in the 300 murder cases including the murder of Iranian Ambassador Sadiq Gunji, Commissioner Syed Tajammal Abbas, Deputy Commissioner Syed Ali Raza, Senior Superintendent of Police Syed Mohammad Ashraf Marth and several others high profile murders.

LeJ’s main attacks were Mominoura graveyard attack 1998, abduction of Daniel Pearl 2002, Quetta bombing 2013, killed over 200 of Hazara community (Shiite) members and attack on Sri Lankan cricket team in Lahore in 2003.

According to different reports, Al-Qaeda affiliate LeJ started anti-state operations soon after the killing of outfit’s founder leader Riaz Basra in a police encounter in 2002. Riaz Basra escaped from the court before it in the rule on Manzoor Ahmed Watto as the chief minister of Punjab.

LeJA was formed in 2009 by Abid Mehsood in Miran Shah but they started anti-state activities in 2003. Their 1st target was the attack on Police Station of Orangi Town No 5. Abid Mehsud was previously affiliated with the SSP’s Banarus Karachi Unit and later fled to his native place South Waziristan in 2003 after he was declared wanted in Nishtar Park attack, Shiite Cleric Hassan Turabi’s killing, abduction of Shaukat Afridi and few other cases. He was killed on October 4, 2010 and succeeded by Yahya Afridi. According to a media report, he was killed by Hakimullah Mehsud, 2nd Emir of the TTP, whereas other sources also confirmed it.

The group’s spokesman had said that LeJ was only limited to the Shia killings that’s why they added “al-Alami” with their name and started activities against the system of Pakistan and its law enforcement agencies.

But it came in media spotlight after the Police Training Center Quetta attack that took 62 lives of young police cadets. The LeJA spokesman had accepted responsibility for the attack and said they collaborated with so-called Islamic State (IS). The said statement confirmed many rumors swirling about the group regarding its collaboration with the IS terror outfit. However, according to the group’s spokesman Ali bin Sufyan they have “never pledge allegiance to IS patron Abu-Bakar al-Baghdadi but they are under allegiance of Chief/Emir of Tehreek-i-Taliban Afghanistan (TTA), Mullah Haibatullah Akhwanzada and LeJA is an independent outfit that is working with their own policies”.

The group is not only collaborating with IS but independent sources said it joined hands with the seven other extremists outfits active against anti-Pakistan activities in the month of November 2016 and decided to cooperate with each other in a meeting arranged by the LeJA’s current Chief/Emir Syed Safdar alias Yousif Mansoor Khurasani in Afghanistan’s Ghazni province. The meeting was attended by the Javaid Swati, coordinator of defunct TTP and close aide of its chief Mullah Fazlullah, Wajid Mehsud of Jandullah, Sheheryar Mehsud who leads the TTP Shehryar group himself attended the meeting, Abdul Wali of Jamaatul Ahrar, Mufti Ghufran of Khalifa Mansoor Group, Mullah Daud of Qari Hussain Group and Maulvi Khatir of TTP Sajna Group [this splinter group of TTP rejoined TTP in 1st week of February 2017].

After the said meeting LeJA and other seven groups found in joint terror activities in Pakistan, for instance Parachinar attack was claimed by the both LeJA and Shehryar Mehsud Group and both groups’ spokesman lamented that the attack is joint exercise of LeJA and TTP Mehsud Group, attack on Frontier Corps’ vehicle via remote control bomb in Chaman, Balochistan on February 7, 2017, was a joint attack of LeJA and Jamat ul Ahrah (JuA) and few other attacks on law enforcement agencies are also jointly claimed.

Initially the group was active only in Balochistan and Sindh and after the Training Center Attack they openly announced two teams “Ghazi Rasheed Brigade and Afia Siddiqui Brigade to attack the law enforcement agencies and later they announced two more teams “Baitullah Mehsud Brigade and Riaz Basra Brigade”. Each brigade is active in a different province of Pakistan. Ghazi Rasheed brigade is involved in targeting law enforcement agencies in Balochistan. Afia Siddiqui brigade in Sindh, Baitullah Mehsud Brigade in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and the Riaz Basra Brigade in Punjab. All the four teams of LeJA have attacked several high profile officers of LeAs and civilian including recent killing of Deputy Superintendent of Police Faiz Ali Shigri in Karachi, Inspector CTD Fida Hussain on March 5, 2017 in Pakpattan, Punjab and Ahmadi leader Malik Saleem Latif on March 30 in Punjab’s area Nankana Sahib. He was the cousin of Nobel Laureate Dr Abdus Salam.

The group had strong ties with IS but after the attack on a sufi shrine Lal Shehbaz Qalander in Sehwan Sindh, groups spokesman suddenly disassociated the group from IS and said, “LeJA has stopped collaboration with IS due to policy differences”. But they did not break ties with IS because of attack on the shrine. A source revealed on the condition of anonymity that few members of the group secretly joined ISIS and started criticising Ahl-e-Sunnat Wal Jamaat’s (ASWJ) clerics including Ahmed Ludhyanawi, that was the main reason of broken ties with ISIS. The group’s spokesman also issued a statement and condemned the criticism on clerics of ASWJ including Muhammad Ahmed Ludhyanawi and said “Daeshi mentality” was propagating against Ulema-i-Ahle Sunnat wal Jamaat [clerics of ASWJ] and poisoning the minds of the youngsters of SSP”.

The former director general of Pakistan’s premier intelligence agency Inter Service Intelligence ISI has said in a statement that the LeJA is more dangerous group than Taliban. Yes, indeed LeJA is more dangerous than other militant groups active in Pakistan because it has vast experience of terror activities in the populated cities of the countries since decades. According to sources and renowned author of Punjabi Taliban, SSP provided most dangerous killers to LeJ’s founder Riaz Basra to carry out Shia killings. Sources claimed that SSP wanted to separate militant wing due to their political interests and indeed it supported LeJ with manpower and sometime with financial assistance.

The group is spreading its network in all the four provinces rapidly with the support of its former wings’ activities which had remained hidden after the killing of LeJ Chief Malik Ishaq in a police encounter in Punjab. Now the fighters of LeJ are also joining the newly named outfit that has also been banned by the MoI.

The writer is a political and security analyst and a former TV host.

Twitter@tanvirarain