Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) is an Islamic Salafist militant group established in 1986344 as an armed wing of the Sunni Islamist organisation Markaz-ud-Dawa-wal-Irshad.345 While seeking exclusive Pakistani control over the Kashmir region,346 it is known to harbour more wide-reaching hostility towards India,347 striving to establish Islamic rule across the Indian subcontinent.348 It has collaborated with other Kashmiri-oriented349 groups such as Jaish-e Mohammed (JeM) and Harakat ul-Mujahideen (HuM) and supported al-Qaeda.350 At the same time, the group has refrained from attacks inside Pakistan and condemned anti-state militancy in the country, at times even providing assistance in neutralising militants.351 While Pakistan’s ISI had strong institutional, albeit covert, ties with LeT in the past, there has been less clarity as to the current extent of state support for the group.352 There was even some controversy during the reference period as to whether the group was active353 or defunct.354 Sources estimated that the group had ‘several thousand’355 up to 5 000 members.356 The group’s headquarters are reportedly located in the city of Muridke in Pakistan’s Punjab province.357 Disputed allegations held that LeT played a role in a major deadly attack in Pahalgam (Jammu and Kashmir) in April 2025 that was initially claimed by The Resistance Front (TRF), a group possibly identical with LeT.358 Following the Pahalgam attack, India launched missile strikes against the alleged LeT headquarters.359
- 344
Guardian (The), Kashmir crisis: what is Lashkar-e-Taiba and is it supported by Pakistan?, 7 May 2025, url
- 345
Britannica, Lashkar-e-Taiba, last updated 6 March 2026, url
- 346
Britannica, Lashkar-e-Taiba, last updated 6 March 2026, url
- 347
Guardian (The), Kashmir crisis: what is Lashkar-e-Taiba and is it supported by Pakistan?, 7 May 2025, url
- 348
Britannica, Lashkar-e-Taiba, last updated 6 March 2026, url
- 349
Britannica, Jaish-e-Mohammed, last updated 21 May 2025, url; US, CIA, World Factbook – Terrorist Organizations, n.d., url
- 350
US, CIA, World Factbook – Terrorist Organizations, n.d., url
- 351
Guardian (The), Kashmir crisis: what is Lashkar-e-Taiba and is it supported by Pakistan?, 7 May 2025, url
- 352
Guardian (The), Kashmir crisis: what is Lashkar-e-Taiba and is it supported by Pakistan?, 7 May 2025, url
- 353
US, CIA, World Factbook – Terrorist Organizations, n.d., url
- 354
UN Security Council, Letter dated 21 July 2025 from the Chair of the Security Council Committee pursuant to resolutions 1267 (1999), 1989 (2011) and 2253 (2015) concerning Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (Da’esh), Al-Qaida and associated individuals, groups, undertakings and entities addressed to the President of the Security Council [containing thirty-sixth report of the Analytical Support and Sanctions Monitoring Team submitted pursuant to resolution 2734 (2024) concerning ISIL (Da’esh), Al-Qaida and associated individuals and entities], S/2025/482, 24 July 2025, url, para. 84
- 355
US, CRS, Terrorist and Other Militant Groups in Pakistan, last updated 25 March 2026, url, p. 2
- 356
US, CIA, World Factbook – Terrorist Organizations, n.d., url
- 357
International Crisis Group, India-Pakistan: Avoiding a War in Waiting, 17 September 2025, url, p. 7; Al Jazeera, Inside Muridke: Did India hit a ‘terror base’ or a mosque?, 9 May 2025, url
- 358
UN Security Council, Letter dated 21 July 2025 from the Chair of the Security Council Committee pursuant to resolutions 1267 (1999), 1989 (2011) and 2253 (2015) concerning Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (Da’esh), Al-Qaida and associated individuals, groups, undertakings and entities addressed to the President of the Security Council [containing thirty-sixth report of the Analytical Support and Sanctions Monitoring Team submitted pursuant to resolution 2734 (2024) concerning ISIL (Da’esh), Al-Qaida and associated individuals and entities], S/2025/482, 24 July 2025, url, para. 84
- 359
International Crisis Group, India-Pakistan: Avoiding a War in Waiting, 17 September 2025, url, p. 7