Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Tayyaba (LeT) has split to form a new and more sophisticated Punjabi Taliban in Afghanistan’s Kunar province, Nato and ISAF command in Afghanistan have confirmed.
According to the Daily Times, the Punjabi Taliban has broken off from LeT, and refuse to take orders from LeT supremo Hafiz Saeed.
The new group is also linked to the Tehreekul Mujahideen (TM), and is believed to be a faction of the previously split Kairun Naas (KN) of the LeT. The newspaper further said that the reason behind the split might be the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI)’s policy to weaken the ‘jihadi groups’.
It is also believed that Jamaat-ud-Dawa (JuD), LeT, TM and KN split because of sectarian and ideological tensions within the Ahl-e-Hadith faction about the concept of jihad.
The LeT was founded by Hafiz Saeed and Zafar Iqbal in Afghanistan. With its headquarters based in Muridke, near Lahore, the group operates several training camps in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir.
LeT members have carried out major attacks against India and its objective is to 'liberate' Muslims residing in Jammu and Kashmir.
The organisation is banned as a terrorist organisation by India, Pakistan, the United States, the United Kingdom, the European Union, Russia and Australia. Earlier, the US had said that ISI continued to give LeT intelligence help and protection.