Was it the Lashkar, again?

NEW DELHI: If the terrorists shot inthe basement of Ansal Plaza are indeed Lashkar-e-Taiba (Army of the Pure)activists, the people of Delhi and the police can heave more than a sigh ofrelief. Real encounter with the Lashkar do not end so tamely in a one-sidedmanner.Security forces have long accepted that the tougher fighters theyhave encountered till now have been from the Lashkar-e-Taiba who arewell-trained and highly motivated. Many of the fidayeen attacks that have takenplace have been the handiwork of Lashkar activists and it is rare to capture anyalive.It has been sometime since the Lashkar, one of the most dreadedterrorist outfits, has even chosen to acknowledge its role in a terrorist act.This is because the outfit, closer to the Pakistan army than any other terroristoutfit, has been formally banned in Pakistan and has merged with its parentorganisation, the Markaz-dawa-ul-Irshad, which has, in turn, changed its name toJamaat-al-Dawa.The organisation was founded in the late 1980 by HafizMohammed Saeed, Zafar Iqbal and Abdullah Azam who died in a bomb blast in 1989.The Markaz, headquartered in Muridke, 45 km north of Lahore, owes allegiance tothe Ahle-Hadis sect of Islam which preaches a return to the ''pure'' Arab versionof Islam. Another feature of the Markaz/Lashkar is that they see thebattle in Kashmir as the first stage in the larger project of Islamising Indiaand then the world.When a recruit joins the outfit, he drops his SouthAsian name and adopts an Arab nom-de-querre of kuniat such as Abu Zubair or AbuAli. He is also sent for the Daure-e-Am (routine) and later Daura-e-Khas(special) training. Earlier, the outfit had camps in the Kunar province ofAfghanistan, now most of them are in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir.Though itclaims to have fought in the jihad against the Soviets in Afghanistan, theLashkar has become prominent in the 1990s in fighting in Kashmir, and Hindus andIndia figure prominently in its demonology. The head of the organisation, HafizMohammed Saeed, was under detention for the past several months and has now beenplaced under house arrest. This has made little difference to his organisation,which continues to operate from Muridke and spread terror in India.