Lashkar-e-Jhangvi explained

Lashkar-e-Jhangvi
Native Name:	Urdu: {{Nastaliq|لشکر جھنگوی
Founders:	Riaz Basra Malik Ishaq Akram Lahori^[1] Ghulam Rasool Shah
Dates:	1996–present
Leader:	Riaz Basra Malik Ishaq Akram Lahori Ghulam Rasool Shah Asif Ali^[2] Qari Mohammad Yasin^[3]
Motives:	Extermination of the Shia community in Pakistan
Headquarters:	Afghanistan^[4] ^[5]
Area:	Pakistan Afghanistan
Ideology:	Islamism Deobandi supremacism Islamic fundamentalism^[6] Takfirism^[7] ^[8] Anti-Shi'ism
Split From:	Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan
Attacks:	2009 attack on the Sri Lanka national cricket team 2011 Afghanistan Ashura bombings January 2013 Pakistan bombings 2015 Attock bombing 2016 Quetta police training college attack 2019 Quetta bombing
Status:	Active. Designated as a terrorist organization by

The Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LeJ; Urdu: {{Nastaliq|لشکر جھنگوی, Army of Jhangvi), is a Deobandi supremacist, terrorist^[9] and militant organisation based in Afghanistan.^[10] The organisation operates in Pakistan and Afghanistan^{[11] [10]} and is an offshoot of anti-Shia party Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan (SSP). The LeJ was founded by former SSP activists Riaz Basra, Malik Ishaq, Akram Lahori, and Ghulam Rasool Shah.^[12]

The LeJ has claimed responsibility for various mass casualty attacks against the Shia community in Pakistan,^[13] including multiple bombings that killed over 200 Hazara Shias in Quetta in 2013. It has also been linked to the Mominpura Graveyard attack in 1998, the abduction of Daniel Pearl in 2002, and the attack on the Sri Lankan cricket team in Lahore in 2009.^{[14] [15]} A predominantly Punjabi group,^[16] the LeJ has been labelled by Pakistani intelligence officials as one of the country's most dangerous organisations.^[17]

Basra, the first Emir of LeJ, was killed in a police encounter in 2002. He was succeeded by Malik Ishaq, who was also killed, along with Ghulam Rasool Shah, in an encounter in Muzaffargarh in 2015.^[18] LeJ was banned by Pakistan in August 2001.^[19] The LeJ remains active, and has been designated as a terrorist organization by Australia,^[20] Canada,^[21] Pakistan,^[22] United Kingdom,^[23] United States^[24] and the United Nations.^[25]

Formation

Basra, along with Akram Lahori and Malik Ishaq, separated from Sipah-e-Sahaba and formed Lashkar-e-Jhangvi in 1996. ("Almost the entire leadership" of the group, is made up of "people who fought in Afghanistan".)^[26] The newly formed group took its name from Sunni cleric Haq Nawaz Jhangvi who led anti-Shia violence in the 1980s, one of the founders of the Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan(SSP).^[12] LJ's founders believed that the SSP had strayed from Jhangvi's ideals.^{[13] [27]} Jhangvi was killed in an attack by Shia militants in 1990. Malik Ishaq, the operational chief of LJ, was released after 14 years by the Supreme Court of Pakistan on 14 July 2011, after the Court dropped 34 of the 44 charges against him, involving the killing of around 100 people, and granted him bail in the remaining 10 cases due to lack of evidence.^{[28] [29] [30] [31]} In 2013, Ishaq was arrested at his home in Rahim Yar Khan of the Punjab province.^[32]

Activities

LJ initially directed most of its attacks against the Pakistani Shia Muslim community. It also claimed responsibility for the 1997 killing of four U.S. oil workers in Karachi. Lashkar-e-Jhangvi attempted to assassinate Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif in 1999.^[33] Basra himself was killed in 2002 when an attack he was leading on a Shia settlement near Multan failed. Basra was killed due to the cross-fire between his group and police assisted by armed local Shia residents.

• In April 1999 the nephew of the then worldwide Khalifa, Mirza Tahir Ahmad, of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community was assassinated. Some have since alleged the attack was carried about by Lashkar-e-Jhangvi.^[34]
• In March 2002 LJ members bombed a bus, killing 15 people, including 11 French citizens.^[35]
• On 17 March 2002 at 11:00 am, two members of the Lashkar-e-Jhangvi bombed the International Protestant Church in Islamabad during a church service. Five people were killed, including two American women, two Pakistanis and an Afghan man. Forty-one more people were injured, including 27 foreigners. In July 2002 Pakistani police killed one of the alleged perpetrators and arrested four Lashkar-e-Jhangvi members in connection with the church attack. The LJ members confessed to the killings and said the attack was in retaliation for the U.S. attack on Afghanistan.
• The Pakistani government Interior Ministry said that the suicide bomber involved in the assassination of Benazir Bhutto, along with the death of 20 others in Rawalpindi, belonged to Lashkar-e-Jhangvi on 27 December 2007.^[36]
• Authorities believe Mohammed Aqeel, an LJ member, was the mastermind behind the March 2009 attack on the Sri Lanka national cricket team.^[37]
• Claimed responsibility for 2011 Hazara Town shooting in Pakistan killing 8 people.
• LJ claimed responsibility for killing 26 Shia pilgrims on 20 September 2011 in the Mastung area of Balochistan. The pilgrims were travelling on a bus to Iran.^{[38] [39]} In addition, 2 others were killed in a follow-up attack on a car on its way to rescue the survivors of the bus attack.
• Afghan President Hamid Karzai blamed LJ for a bombing that killed 59 people at Abu Fazal shrine in the Murad Khane district of Kabul on 6 December 2011. Most of the dead were pilgrims marking Ashoura, the holiest day in the Shia calendar.^{[40] [41]}
• Lashkar-i-Jhangvi claimed responsibility for 13 lives lost in brutal attack on Shia pilgrims.^[42] in Quetta on 28 June: At least 13 people, two women and a policeman among them, were killed and over 20 others injured on Thursday in a bomb attack on a bus mainly carrying Shia pilgrims returning from Iran. Most of the pilgrims belonged to the Hazara community.
• Claimed responsibility for January 2013 Pakistan bombings in Pakistan killing 125 people.^[43]
• Claimed responsibility for February 2013 Quetta bombings in Pakistan killing 81 and wounding 178, mostly Shia people.^[44]
• Claimed responsibility for June 15th 2013 Quetta bombings in Pakistan.^[45]
• Claimed responsibility for the January 2014 attempted bombing of a school which killed one of its students, Aitzaz Hasan in Pakistan.^[46]
• Claimed responsibility for January 2014 bombing in Mastung Balochistan killing 28 Zaireen/ Hazara Community.^{[47] [48]}
• Claimed responsibility of assassination of Pakistani politician Shuja Khanzada in August 2015.^[49]
• Claimed responsibility for attack on Police training center Quetta Pakistan in October 2016 killing at least 61 people including cadets and army officers.

Headquarters

Officials from Zabul province claim that Lashkar-e Jhangvi has a sanctuary in southern Afghanistan.^[4] Early on in 2016, Lashkar-e-Jhangvi leader Yousuf Mansoor Khurasani survived an insider attack in southern Afghanistan.^[5]

Affiliations

LJ has ties to the Pakistani Taliban, the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU), Sipah-e-Sahaba (SSP), Ahle Sunnat Waljamaat (ASWJ), Al-Qaeda and Jundallah.^[50] Investigation found that Al Qaeda has been involved with training of LJ.

Upon the death of Riaz Basra in May 2002, correspondence between al-Qaeda and LJ seems to have stopped.^[13]

Designation as a terrorist organization

The Government of Pakistan designated the LJ a terrorist organization in August 2001, and the U.S. classified it as a Foreign Terrorist Organization under U.S. law in January 2003.^[24] As a result, its finances are blocked worldwide by the U.S government.

See also

• List of Deobandi organisations
• Ansar Al-Mujahideen
• List of designated terrorist organizations
• Madhe Sahaba Agitation
• Anti-Shi'ism
• Genocide of Kashmiri Shias
• Persecution of Hazara people
• Persecution of Shias by ISIL
• Syed Ahmad Barelvi
• Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan

Further reading

• Lashkar-e-Jhangvi Claims Islamic State Support in Quetta Attack, Newsweek Pakistan, 27 October 2016.
• Quetta attack: A primer on Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, who allegedly carried out strike, Firstpost, 26 October 2016.

External links

• U.S. Department of State:Designation of Lashkar I Jhangvi as a Foreign Terrorist Organization, 2003
• U.S Treasury Department:Treasury Department Statement Regarding the Designation of Lashkar i Jhangvi, 2003, downloaded from Google cache, 29 September 2005
• People's Daily: "Explosion in Islamabad Kills Four, Wounds 40"

An early version of this article was adapted from the public domain U.S. federal government sources.

Notes and References

1. Web site: Pakistani Sunni Militant Arrested In Southern Iran. 26 February 2024.
2. Web site: Lashkar-e-Jhangvi's chief Asif Chotu killed along with 3 associates in Pakistan. 18 January 2017. The Indian Express. 19 January 2017.
3. Web site: TTP-JA confirms key Pakistani terrorist killed in US drone strike - The Express Tribune. 22 March 2017.
4. News: Pakistani Extremists Carve A Sanctuary In Southern Afghanistan. 23 January 2017. RFERL. https://web.archive.org/web/20170429204605/https://gandhara.rferl.org/a/afghanistan-zabul-lashkar-e-jhangvi/28251900.html. 29 April 2017. live. dmy-all.
5. News: Lashkar-e-Jhangvi Al-Alami group chief survives insider attack in Afghanistan. 25 December 2016. Khaama Press. https://web.archive.org/web/20181119051633/https://www.khaama.com/lashkar-e-jhangvi-al-alami-group-chief-survives-insider-attack-in-afghanistan-02543/. 19 November 2018. live. dmy-all.
6. Web site: Profile: Lashkar-e-Jhangvi. 11 January 2013. BBC News. 29 July 2015.
7. Book: Abou-Zahab, Mariam. Mariam Abou Zahab. Ahmad. Imtiaz. Reifeld. Helmut. Lived Islam in South Asia: Adaptation, Accommodation & Conflict. 2004. Social Science Press. Jor Bagh, New Delhi. 8187358157. The Sunni-Shia Conflict in Jhang (Pakistan).
8. Book: Murphy. Eamon. The Making of Terrorism in Pakistan: Historical and Social Roots of Extremism. 2013. Routledge. 129, 131. 9780415565264.
9. Web site: State designates leader of Lashkar-e-Jhanghvi as global terrorist. The Long War Journal. 3 August 2015. 6 February 2014.
10. News: Pakistani Extremists Carve A Sanctuary In Southern Afghanistan. Gandhara Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty. 23 January 2017.
11. News: Is Lashker-e-Jhangvi Taking Advantage of Pakistan and Afghanistan's Bilateral Tensions?. 27 January 2017. The Diplomat.
12. News: Farooqi . Asif . Profile: Lashkar-e-Jhangvi - BBC News . Bbc.com . 11 January 2013. 2015-08-16. BBC News .
13. Roul . Animesh . Lashkar-e-Jhangvi: Sectarian Violence in Pakistan and Ties to International Terrorism . Terrorism Monitor . 3 . 11 . Jamestown Foundation . 2 June 2005 . 24 September 2013.
14. News: Pakistani Shi'ites call off protests after Quetta bombing arrests. 19 February 2013 . Reuters.
15. News: Notezai. Muhammad Akbar. Malik Ishaq and Pakistan's Sectarian Violence. 12 August 2015. The Diplomat. 11 August 2015.
16. News: Pakistan Shias killed in Gilgit sectarian attack . BBC News . 16 August 2012 . 11 December 2012 . A predominantly Punjabi group, Lashkar-e-Jhangvi is linked with the 2002 murder of US reporter Daniel Pearl and other militant attacks, particularly in the southern city of Karachi..
17. News: Iran condemns terrorist attacks in Pakistan . Tehran Times . 17 February 2013 . 18 February 2013 . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20140904022747/http://www.tehrantimes.com/politics/105710-iran-condemns-terrorist-attacks-in-pakistan . 4 September 2014 .
18. Web site: Ahmad, Tufail. 21 March 2012. Using Twitter, YouTube, Facebook and Other Internet Tools, Pakistani Terrorist Group Lashkar-e-Jhangvi Incites Violence against Shi'ite Muslims and Engenders Antisemitism. The Middle East Media Research Insititue, memri.org. 22 March 2012.
19. Web site: List of banned organisations in Pakistan. 24 October 2012.
20. Web site: Lashkar-e Jhangvi. Department. Attorney-General’s. www.nationalsecurity.gov.au. en-au. 2019-03-02.
21. Web site: About the listing process. 2015-12-16. www.publicsafety.gc.ca. 2019-03-02.
22. Web site: Proscribed Organizations – NACTA – National Counter Terrorism Authority NACTA Pakistan. en-US. 2019-03-02.
23. Web site: Proscribed terrorist groups or organisations. GOV.UK. en. 2019-03-02.
24. News: Pakistani group joins US terror list. 30 January 2003. 30 January 2003. BBC News South Asia.
25. Web site: LASHKAR I JHANGVI (LJ) United Nations Security Council Subsidiary Organs. https://web.archive.org/web/20161018061034/https://www.un.org/sc/suborg/en/sanctions/1267/aq_sanctions_list/summaries/entity/lashkar-i-jhangvi-(lj). dead. 2016-10-18. 2016-10-18. 2019-03-02.
26. Web site: Pakistan: Backgrounder . South Asian Terrorism Portal (SATP) . 26 July 2023.
27. Web site: Lashkar-e-Jhangvi . South Asia Terrorism Portal . 24 September 2013.
28. News: Amir . Mir . Kidnappers of Taseer's son want release of Qadri . 4 October 2011 . The News International . 24 September 2013.
29. News: Imran . Mukhtar . LeJ leader's entry in Islamabad banned . 6 October 2011 . The Nation . live . https://web.archive.org/web/20111006125230/http://nation.com.pk/pakistan-news-newspaper-daily-english-online/Regional/Islamabad/06-Oct-2011/LeJ-leaders-entry-in-Islamabad-banned . 2011-10-06 . 24 September 2013.
30. News: Attack on Lankans: SC moved against Ishaq's release . 11 October 2011 . The Express Tribune . 24 September 2013.
31. News: Detention of Malik Ishaq, Shah extended for 2 months . 2019-11-29 . . 26 October 2011.
32. News: Leader of Militant Group Arrested in Pakistan, Police Say . 24 September 2013 . CNN . 23 February 2013.
33. Rory McCarthy Death by design The Guardian (UK). Friday 17 May 2002.
34. Web site: Lashkar-e-Jhangvi: Pakistan's terror problem- New Religion. 3 August 2015. https://web.archive.org/web/20150610194626/http://www.newreligion.eu/2013/09/lashkar-e-jhangvi-pakistans-terror.html. 10 June 2015. dead.
35. Web site: The Al-Qaida Sanctions Committee. United Nations Web Services Section. 15 February 2015.
36. News: Pakistan: Fractured skull killed Bhutto . CNN . 28 December 2007 . 24 September 2013.
37. News: Pakistan Faces New Wave of Attacks . Wall Street Journal . 15 October 2009 . 24 September 2013 . In March, gunmen attacked the Sri Lankan cricket team during its visit to Lahore, killing six police officers. That attack, officials say, was masterminded by Mohammed Aqeel, also known as Dr. Usman, a member of Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, a banned Punjabi militant outfit with strong links to the main Pakistan Taliban faction and al Qaeda. Mr. Aqeel also led the attack on the military headquarters in Rawalpindi, officials say, and was captured in the attack..
38. News: Gunmen attack bus in Balochistan, 26 killed. The Express Tribune. 20 September 2011.
39. News: 28 Shia Muslims shot dead by Lashkar militants in Pakistan. Daily News & Analysis. 20 September 2011.
40. News: Lashkar-e-Jhangvi: inciting sectarianism in Afghanistan? . 8 December 2011 . Dawn Media Group . Dawn.com . 24 September 2013.
41. News: Sardar . Ahmad . Karzai blames Pakistanis over sectarian massacre . 7 December 2011 . AFP . https://web.archive.org/web/20120108031218/http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5iuiDw_85Fc_czcRRDdjV3ooxsrIw?docId=CNG.8d286bd1dbe15a516592439618a32be0.3c1 . dead . 8 January 2012 . Google News . 24 September 2013.
42. Web site: Lashkar-i-Jhangvi claims responsibility: 13 lives lost in brutal attack on Shia pilgrims. Saleem Shahid. 15 February 2015. 28 June 2012.
43. News: The Wall Street Journal - Breaking News, Business, Financial & Economic News, World News and Video. The Wall Street Journal.
44. News: Pakistan blast: Governor fury at 'intelligence failure' . BBC News . 17 February 2013.
45. News: Pakistan violence: Gunmen storm Quetta hospital . BBC News . 15 June 2013.
46. Web site: Pakistan teen dies stopping suicide bomber. 15 February 2015.
47. Web site: Mastung attack claimed by Lashkar-e-Jhangvi - AAJ News. 15 February 2015.
48. Web site: Lashkar-e-Jhangvi claims Mastung suicide attack. The International News. 22 January 2014. 16 November 2020.
49. Web site: Pakistan minister Shuja Khanzada killed in suicide attack . The Indian Express . 16 August 2015. 2015-08-16.
50. http://news.outlookindia.com/items.aspx?artid=753356&commentid=45391#45391 18 Shias Killed in Pak Bus Massacre