Lashkar-e-Jhangvi

Formation

Riaz Basra, along with Akram Lahori and Malik Ishaq, separated from Sipah-e-Sahaba and formed Lashkar-e-Jhangvi in 1996 because they had considered Sipah-e-Sahaba to "not be violent enough".

One source stated that "Almost the entire leadership" of the group, wad made up of "people who had fought in Afghanistan", referring to Pakistanis who had fought in the Soviet–Afghan War and Afghan Civil War (1989–1992).

The newly formed group took its name from Sunni cleric Haq Nawaz Jhangvi who was involved in anti-Shia violence in the 1980s, and also one of the founders of the Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan (SSP). Lashkar-e-Jhangvi's founders believed that the SSP had strayed from Jhangvi's ideals. Jhangvi was killed in an attack by Shia militants in 1990.

Malik Ishaq, the operational chief of LeJ, was released after serving 14 years by the Supreme Court of Pakistan on 14 July 2011, after the Court dropped 34 of the 44 charges against him, involving the killing of around 100 people, and granted him bail in the remaining 10 cases due to lack of evidence. In 2013, Ishaq was arrested at his home in Rahim Yar Khan of the Punjab province.

Activities

LeJ initially directed most of its attacks against the Pakistani Shia Muslim community. It also claimed responsibility for the 1997 killing of four American oil workers in Karachi. Lashkar-e-Jhangvi had attempted to assassinate Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif in 1999. Riaz Basra himself was killed in 2002 during a failed attack he was leading on a Shia settlement near Multan. Basra was killed due to the cross-fire between his group and the police who were assisted by armed local Shia residents.

• In April 1999 the nephew of the then Ahmadi Caliph Mirza Tahir Ahmad was assassinated. Some have since alleged the attack was carried about by Lashkar-e-Jhangvi.
• In March 2002 LeJ members bombed a bus, killing 15 people, including 11 French citizens.
• On 17 March 2002 at 11:00 am, two members of the Lashkar-e-Jhangvi bombed the International Protestant Church in Islamabad during a church service. Five people were killed, including two American women, two Pakistanis and an Afghan man. Forty-one more people were injured, including 27 foreigners. In July 2002 Pakistani police killed one of the alleged perpetrators and arrested four Lashkar-e-Jhangvi members in connection with the church attack. The LeJ members confessed to the killings and said the attack was in retaliation for the US attack on Afghanistan.
• The Pakistani government Interior Ministry said that the suicide bomber involved in the assassination of Benazir Bhutto, along with the death of 20 others in Rawalpindi, belonged to Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, on 27 December 2007.
• Pakistani authorities believed that Mohammed Aqeel, an LJ member, was the mastermind behind the March 2009 attack on the Sri Lanka national cricket team.
• Claimed responsibility for 2011 Hazara Town shooting in Pakistan killing 8 people.
• LJ claimed responsibility for the 2011 Mastung bus shooting which killed 26 Shia pilgrims on 20 September 2011 in the Mastung area of Balochistan. The pilgrims were travelling on a bus to Iran. In addition, 2 others were killed in a follow-up attack on a car on its way to rescue the survivors of the bus attack.
• Afghan President Hamid Karzai blamed LeJ for a bombing that killed 59 people at the Abu Fazal shrine in the Murad Khane district of Kabul on 6 December 2011. Most of the dead were pilgrims commemorating Ashura, the holiest day in the Shias.
• Lashkar-i-Jhangvi claimed responsibility for 13 lives lost in brutal attack on Shia pilgrims in Quetta on 28 June. At least 13 people including two women and a policeman were killed and over 20 others injured on in the bomb attack on a bus mainly carrying Shia pilgrims returning from Iran. Most of the pilgrims belonged to the Hazara community.
• Claimed responsibility for January 2013 Pakistan bombings in Pakistan killing, 125 people.
• Claimed responsibility for February 2013 Quetta bombings in Pakistan, killing 81 and wounding 178, mostly Shia people.
• Claimed responsibility for 15 June 2013 Quetta attacks in Pakistan.
• Claimed responsibility for the failed January 2014 attempted bombing of a school which killed one of its students, Aitzaz Hasan in Pakistan.
• Claimed responsibility for January 2014 Mastung bus bombing in Balochistan, killing 28 people from the Hazara Community.
• Claimed responsibility of assassination of Pakistani politician Shuja Khanzada in August 2015.
• Claimed responsibility for 23 December 2015 Parachinar bombing which killed 25 people and injured another 62.
• Claimed responsibility for attack on Police training center Quetta in Balochistan on 24 October 2016, killing at least 61 people including cadets and army officers and injuring more than 165.
• Claimed responsibility for the 12 April 2019 Quetta bombing killing 21 people including at least ten Hazaras, nine of whom were Shias, and 2 paramilitary soldiers.
• Alleged to have play a role in an attack on a Pakistan Army check post in the Makin district of South Waziristan in December 2024. Despite this, other groups such as the TTP (Pakistani Taliban), claimed responsibility. This attack led to an escalation in the already violent 2024 Afghanistan–Pakistan clashes.

Headquarters

Officials from Zabul province had claimed that Lashkar-e-Jhangvi had a sanctuary in southern Afghanistan. Early on in 2016, Lashkar-e-Jhangvi leader Yousuf Mansoor Khurasani had survived an insider attack in southern Afghanistan.

After dissolution/desolation

After the groups dissolution/desolation in 2024, Lashkar-e-Jhangvi's remnants had fled to Southern Afghanistan.

In 2025, following two separate agreements between Pakistan and Afghanistan, where they agreed to not allow terror attacks from their soil on each other's territories, Lashkar-e-Jhangvi's remnants had either withdrew from or scattered around Southern Afghanistan after several arrests of its former and remaining members.

Although the Taliban have launched sweeping efforts at disarmament, including unprecedented house-to-house searches to hunt for weapons and confiscate materiel, the Taliban's way of handling of the group aims at containing them without provoking them to turn against the Taliban's government.

Affiliations

Lashkar-e-Jhangvi had ties to the Pakistani Taliban (TTP), the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU), Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan (SSP), Ahle Sunnat Wal Jamaat (ASWJ), Islamic State – Khorasan Province (IS-KP), Al-Qaeda and Jundallah.

Relationship with Al-Qaeda

An investigation had found that Al-Qaeda had been involved with the training of LeJ.

Upon the death of Riaz Basra in May 2002, correspondence between Al-Qaeda and Lashkar-e-Jhangvi had seemed to have stopped.

Designation as a terrorist organization

The Government of Pakistan had designated LeJ as a terrorist organization in August 2001, and the U.S. had classified it as a Foreign Terrorist Organization under U.S. law in January 2003. As a result of this its finances were blocked worldwide by the U.S government.

Decline

The organization came to decline in the early 2020s with much of its leadership killed, captured or executed by Pakistani Security Forces and its rivalry from Shia militant groups (such as Sipah-e-Muhammad and Tehreek-e-Jaffaria), which contributed to its decline.

Competition

Lashkar-e-Jhangvi also faced much competition from other Sunni militant/insurgent organizations in Pakistan such as the Pakistan Taliban, Lashkar-e-Islam, Tehreek-e-Jihad Pakistan, Al-Qaeda in the Indian subcontinent, Islamic State – Khorasan Province as well as the Islamic State – Pakistan Province.

Death of last leader

The last Leader of the group, Akram Lahori (also known as Muhammad Ajmal) was arrested in Southern Iran in February 2024. Before his arrest, he was granted bail by a Pakistani anti-terrorism court in October 2023. In Iran, he had been pronounced guilty of terrorism for his involvement in an anti-Shia terror group, attending bomb-making training courses and plotting terror attacks in Iran. He was sentenced to death by Iranian authorities under the anti-terror law.

Last major incidents

The last two official major incidents with the organization were in March and September 2024, when several of its remaining members were arrested or killed by Security forces during intelligence-based Counterterrorism operations in Jhang and other cities.

Individuals from multiple groups arrested

On the 3rd of August, 2024, the Counter Terrorism Department (CTD) of Punjab arrested 3 people who were associated with 3 separate banned organizations from 3 separate locations, in order to thwart what they called "a significant terror plot". These were:

• Abdul Wahab from Chakwal who was associated with LeJ (Lashkar-e-Jhangvi).
• Saifullah from Faisalabad who was associated with ISPP (Islamic State – Pakistan Province).
• Khurram Abbas from Khushab who was associated with SMP (Sepah-e-Muhammad Pakistan).

The CTD recovered large caches of prohibited materials from the arrested, including 1,625 grams of explosives, three hand grenades, two IED bombs, three detonators, eight feet of safety fuse wire, 12 pamphlets, 10 stickers, and Rs 22,250 in cash.

Arrest of CTD officer's murderers

In a media statement on the 7th of October 2024, officials of Pakistan's Counter Terrorism Department, including Deputy Inspector General Sheikh and CTD In-charge Raja Umar Khattab, identified the murderers of a CTD officer as 30-year-old Usman Qureshi, son of Ayub Qureshi, and 35-year-old Hafiz Qasim Rashid, son of Abdul Rashid Hazravi. Both were suspected members of the Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, which operated in conjunction with the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP). They were prime suspects in the killing of DSP Ali Raza, who was gunned down near Faisal Market, Karimabad, in July, 2024.

Alleged involvement in ambush

In December 2024 an attack took place in the Makin district of South Waziristan on a Pakistan Army check post. Several media sources claimed that the attack was allegedly carried out by Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, but the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) officially claimed responsibility.

Pakistani Security officials' claims

Pakistani security officials believe that the former members of Lashkar-e-Jhangvi were also allegedly involved in this attack. According to the officials, following the dissolution of terror group, its various clandestine cell systems have joined either the TTP, ISKP or ISPP.

End of official encounters and attacks

After these, the organization has claimed no attacks and non have been reported by Pakistani authorities and is considered to be defunct. Experts have described the decline of organization as a significant boost for the Government of Pakistan against Terrorism.

Switching of allegiance by groups

On 6 September 2024 the Naeem Bukhari group from Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, whose leader was Ata-ur-Rehman (alias Naeem Buhkari), who also had ties to Al-Qaeda while also once being arrested, declared his groups's allegiance to the Pakistan Taliban. The Pakistani Taliban, through its Umer Media channel, announced that all members of the network/group had pledged their allegiance to its leader, Mufti Noor Wali. Hafiz Qasim Ghazi, the leader of Bukhari’s faction, led the group’s formal merger with the Pakistani Taliban. The Pakistani Taliban also called on other jihadi/militant groups in Karachi to follow suit. Reports suggest that the number of factions aligned with the Tehrik-ie-Taliban Pakistan (Pakistani Taliban) has grown to 60, with the Naeem Bukhari group from Lashkar-e-Jhangvi being the latest addition.

References

Notes

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