Daily Times

KARACHI: Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LeJ), a proscribed organization, left with only a 10 percent effective network has become the leader of international terrorist organizations such as ISIS, Al-Qaida and TTP in the country, particularly in the port city of Karachi , the largest city of Sindh, and Quetta, the largest city of Baluchistan, officials involved in anti terrorist operations have revealed.

LeJ’s terror activities after many years of calm had resurfaced in the middle of last year, 2016, which drew attention of intelligence agencies as some of its key members were effectively neutralized.

The Organization is still the prime target of law enforcement agencies LEAs for its close liaison with banned “Jamat-ul-Ahrar”. Most of the organization’s activists have gone underground to escape arrests.

The officials claim that LeJ’s almost 90 percent network has been disabled by eliminating its top leadership.

According to the officials, LeJ ties with ISIS surfaced last year when terrorists attacked the police academy in Quetta in October.

The group is active in Karachi and Quetta with two deferent off-shoot groups namely the Naeem Bukhari Group in Karachi and LeJ Al-Aalmi in Quetta, after the start of operation “Zarb-e-Azb” the leadership and its workers went underground while the members of TTP and Al-Qaida fled to Afghanistan and from there they launched terror attacks inside Pakistan with the help of LeJ due to its extensive penetration.

It is pertinent to mention here that on Monday the Counter Terrorism Department CTD Sindh had busted a sleeper cell of LeJ Naeem Bukhari Group by killing it chief “Dildar Chacha” and arresting four complies. The raiding team had also recovered a huge cache of explosives and rocket launchers.

The leader of the group Naeem Bukhari was arrested by the intelligence agencies in January this year. Bukhari, said to be expert in terror networking, had formed sub groups with difference tasks assigned to them including target killings, bomb making and financial support.