While the primary area of operations of LeT's terrorist activities is the Kashmir Valley, their professed goal is not limited to challenging India's sovereignty over Jammu and Kashmir. LeT sees the issue of Kashmir as part of a wider global struggle.[69] The group has adopted maximalist agenda of global jihad though its operations have so far been limited to Kashmir. The group justifies its ideology on verse 2:216 of the Quran. Extrapolating from this verse, the group asserts that military jihad is a religious obligation of all Muslims and defines the many circumstances under which it must be carried out. In a pamphlet entitled "Why Are We Waging Jihad?", the group states that all of India along with many other countries were once ruled by Muslims and were Muslim lands, which is their duty to take it back from the non-Muslims. It declared United States, India, and Israel as "existential enemies of Islam".[24][70] LeT believes that jihad is the duty of all Muslims and must be waged until eight objectives are met: Establishing Islam as the dominant way of life in the world, forcing disbelievers to pay jizya (a tax on non-Muslims), fighting for the weak and feeble against oppressors, exacting revenge for killed Muslims, punishing enemies for violating oaths and treaties, defending all Muslim states, and recapturing occupied Muslim territory. The group construes lands once ruled by Muslims as Muslim lands and considers it as their duty to get them back. It embraces a pan-Islamist rationale for military action.[8][24]
tamil movies Lashkar - The War Against Terror
After the UNSC ban, Hindu minority groups in Pakistan came out in support of JuD. At protest marches in Hyderabad, Hindu groups said that JuD does charity work such as setting up water wells in desert regions and providing food to the poor.[99][100] However, according to the BBC, the credibility of the level of support for the protest was questionable as protesters on their way to what they believed was a rally against price rises had been handed signs in support of JuD.[100] The JuD ban has been met with heavy criticism in many Pakistani circles,[by whom?] as JuD was the first to react to the Kashmir earthquake and the Ziarat earthquake. It also ran over 160 schools with thousands of students and provided aid in hospitals as well. JuD disguises terrorist activities by showing fake welfare trusts.[101]
LeT cadres have also been arrested in different cities of India. On 27 May, a LeT militant was arrested from Hajipur in Gujarat. On 15 August 2001, a LeT militant was arrested from Bhatinda in Punjab.[160] Mumbai police's interrogation of LeT operative, Abu Jundal revealed that LeT has planned 10 more terror attacks across India and he had agreed to participate in these attacks.[161] A top US counter-terrorism official, Daniel Benjamin, in a news conference on 31 July 2012, told that LeT was a threat to the stability in South Asia urging Pakistan to take strong action against the terror outfit.[162] Interrogation of Jundal revealed that LeT was planning to carry out aerial attacks on Indian cities and had trained 150 paragliders for this. He knew of these plans when he visited a huge bungalow in eastern Karachi where top LeT men, supervised by a man called Yakub were planning aerial and sea route attacks on India.[163]
Several Indian lawyers refused to represent Kasab citing ethical concerns. A resolution was passed unanimously by the Bombay Metropolitan Magistrate Court's Bar Association, which has more than 1,000 members, saying that none of its members would defend any of the accused of the terror attacks.[82] Other bar associations passed similar resolutions. The Hindu nationalist group Shiv Sena threatened lawyers against representing him. When one attorney, Ashok Sarogi, hinted that he would be willing to represent Kasab, Shiv Shena members protested outside his home and pelted it with stones, forcing him to retract.[83][84] In December 2008, the Indian Chief Justice K. G. Balakrishnan said that for a fair trial, Kasab needed a lawyer.[85]
In the countries listed below, significant human rights issues influenced the state of terrorist activity in the country and may have impeded effective counterterrorism policies and programs or supported causes and conditions for further violence. Such human rights issues included, among others: unlawful and arbitrary killings, including extrajudicial killings, forced disappearances, torture, and arbitrary detention (all of the preceding by both government and nonstate actors); harsh and life-threatening prison conditions; violence against and unjustified arrests of journalists; substantial interference with the rights of peaceful assembly and freedom of association; widespread and pervasive corruption; repression of religious freedom ad violence against religious minorities; and forced and bonded labor.
African countries and regional organizations sustained ongoing counterterrorism efforts against threats in East Africa, the Sahel, and the Lake Chad region while increasing emphasis on preventing the expansion of terrorist groups, affiliates, and associated organizations into new operating areas in West Africa and Southern Africa.
Terrorists routinely manipulated local communal conflicts and their leaders to support terrorist operations by assisting with long-standing claims against other groups. For example, in Nigeria, terrorists exploited the fighting between the Peuhl and Fulani ethnic groups, as well as the perennial farmer-herder violence over water and grazing areas, to recruit supporters and advance their political and operational interests. Terrorists continued to carry out attacks on military outposts, kidnap western private citizens and humanitarian workers, attack churches, mosques and schools teaching western curricula, and assassinate civil servants and politicians. In Mali, the government has been unable to regain control of northern and central parts of the country. Burkina Faso also experienced increased terrorism in its northern and eastern provinces and in the southern and western parts of the country. There was also a notable uptick in violence in the tri-border region shared by Mali, Niger, and Burkina Faso, which affected all three countries.
Multiple suicide bombings in the Philippines were a new phenomenon for the region. They included a complex attack against a military unit in Sulu, which involved the first Filipino suicide bomber, as well as a suicide attack at the Jolo Cathedral in Sulu, carried out by an Indonesian couple. Southeast Asian governments remained concerned about foreign terrorist fighters (FTFs) returning from Iraq or Syria and using their operational skills, connections, and experience to launch domestic attacks.
Europe continued to face many ongoing terrorist threats and concerns in 2019, including from U.S.-designated FTOs, FTFs returning from Iraq and Syria, homegrown terrorists, and Iran-backed terrorists. Despite the total loss of its geographic territory, ISIS continued to project its influence by fomenting attacks against symbolic European targets and public spaces, and recruiting from European countries. Most of these incidents occurred in Western Europe and Russia and involved simple plots with easily executable tactics, such as the use of common tools and vehicles to injure or kill pedestrians.
In addition to continued terrorist activity in Afghanistan and Pakistan, South Asia in 2019 saw a volatile mix of insurgent attacks punctuated by major incidents of terrorism in the Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir (now known as the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir) and in Sri Lanka. A February 14 suicide bombing attack against an Indian paramilitary convoy in the Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir led to military hostilities and heightened tensions between India and Pakistan. Although ISIS lost the last remnants of its territory in Syria in March, it announced new branches in Pakistan and India in May and claimed responsibility for the Easter bombings in Sri Lanka in April.
While Pakistan continued to experience terrorist attacks, there were fewer attacks and casualties than in 2018, continuing an overall decline. Pakistani military and security forces undertook CT operations against groups that conducted attacks within Pakistan, such as Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), ISIS-K, and the Balochistan Liberation Army. Pakistan took modest steps in 2019 to counter terror financing and restrain India-focused militant groups from conducting large-scale attacks following the February attack on a security convoy in the Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir linked to Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM). Pakistan took action against some externally focused groups, including indicting Lashkar e-Tayyiba (LeT) founder Hafiz Saeed and associates in three separate terrorism financing cases.
Many Latin American countries have porous borders, limited law enforcement capabilities, and established smuggling routes. Commercial hubs in the TBA and Panama remained regional nodes for money laundering and vulnerable to terrorist financing. Corruption, weak government institutions, insufficient interagency cooperation, weak or non-existent legislation, and a general lack of resources likewise remained obstacles to improving security. Nevertheless, some Western Hemisphere countries made significant progress in their counterterrorism efforts in 2019 and strengthened regional cooperation against terrorism.
Under this program, the Secretary of State may authorize rewards for information that leads to the arrest or conviction of anyone who plans, commits, aids, or attempts international terrorist acts against U.S. persons or property; that prevents such acts from occurring in the first place, that leads to the identification or location of a key terrorist leader; or that disrupts terrorism financing. Pursuant to a 2017 amendment, RFJ also provides rewards for certain information that leads to the disruption of financial mechanisms of persons supporting the North Korean regime or for information that leads to the identification or location or any individual who, acting at the direction or under the control of a foreign government, aids or abets a violation of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act. 2ff7e9595c
Comments