In the past one lashkar was different from another lashkar and each could be treated differently with regards to its position towards the state. But today that has changed. New evidence reveals that a new terror syndicate is threatening Pakistan’s sovereignty as traditionally independent and opposing militant groups are joining forces to attack Pakistan’s military and government according to a report in The New York Times.
Increased cooperation among insurgent factions also is being reported inside Pakistan, where many of the extremist organizations are based or where their leaders have found a haven.
American and NATO officials said they had seen evidence of loose cooperation among other insurgent groups, including Lashkar-e-Taiba and Tehrik-i-Taliban.
Lashkar is a Punjabi group and is considered one of the most serious long-term threats inside Pakistan. The Punjabi groups, many of which were created by Pakistani intelligence to fight against India’s interests in Kashmir, now appear to be teaming up with Pashtun groups like the Afghan and Pakistani Taliban to fight their creators, the Pakistani intelligence and security services.
Pentagon and military officials who routinely engage with their Pakistani counterparts said officials in Islamabad, Pakistan’s capital, agreed with the new American and NATO assessments.
“This is actually a syndicate of related and associated militant groups and networks,” said one American officer, summarizing the emerging view of Pakistani officials. “Trying to parse them, as if they have firewalls in between them, is really kind of silly. They cooperate with each other. They franchise work with each other.”
Just as the American support for al Qaeda as proxy fighters in Afghanistan during the Cold War has come back to haunt it in the case of 9/11 and other attempted attacks on American soil, so our own support for militia groups as proxy fighters to liberate Kashmir has turned its venom upon us.
