Pakistan arrests do little to stop Lashkar

EXCLUSIVE:

LAHORE, Pakistan

Lashkar-e-Taiba will not be crippled by Monday’s arrest of the purported mastermind of the Mumbai attacks and at least 19 other members of the militant group, a Lashkar coordinator said.

“We´re still well-organized and active,” said the militant, who serves as a coordinator for the group, which has a large following despite being outlawed in 2002.

The 20 members of Lashkar-e-Taiba were arrested Monday amid growing criticism that Pakistan has allowed the militant group to continue operating openly, despite claims to the contrary.

The Lashkar coordinator spoke with The Washington Times in a safe house near Lahore, Pakistan’s second-largest city, on the condition of anonymity - presumably to avoid arrest.

He said Lashkar’s strength in Pakistan was in the thousands.

Pakistan on Monday announced the arrest of Zaki-u-Rehman Lakhvi, who was among 20 arrested during a raid in Muzaffarabad in the Pakistan-controlled portion of Kashmir.

Indian media reports have identified Mr. Lakhvi as the organizer of the terrorist attacks in Mumbai that killed 172 people and raised tensions between India and Pakistan - two nuclear-armed nations that have fought three wars.

The Lashkar fighter in Lahore said the group has “huge strength” and is concentrated in Pakistan’s tribal areas on the border with Afghanistan.

He ran his fingers through his bushy beard as he sat in a dingy room for the interview, surrounded by boys ages 15 to 20 who listened intently as he spoke.

Inside the room was a wooden cupboard, a bed and two chairs. The walls were blank, and the space was lit by a solitary lamp. The man stood uncomfortably against the wall throughout the interview, his eyes avoiding this female reporter’s face.

Pakistani officials initially denied any link between the Mumbai killings and Lashkar-e-Taiba. The group, whose name means “army of the pure,” was created by Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence agency (ISI) two decades ago to pursue Pakistani claims to Kashmir, a Muslim majority territory that India largely controls.

Lashkar has been implicated in multiple acts of terrorism against India in the past decade, and though banned by Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf in 2002, has reorganized.

“The Lashkar definitely has the capability and the capacity to conduct attacks such as those which took place in Mumbai,” said Rasool Baksh Raees, a political science professor at the Lahore University of Management Sciences.

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