Storming the World Stage

Storming the World Stage PDF Author: Stephen Tankel
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
ISBN: 0199333440
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 365

Get Book Here

Book Description
Lashkar-e-Taiba is among the most powerful militants groups in South Asia and increasingly viewed as a global terrorist threat on par with al-Qaeda. Considered Pakistan's most powerful proxy against India, the group gained public prominence after its deadly ten-person suicide assault on Mumbai in November 2008. By the time the last Lashkar terrorist was dead after nearly 60 hours, it appeared the world was facing a new menace. Boasting transnational networks stretching across several continents, there has been serious debate since 9/11 of whether Lashkar is an al-Qaeda affiliate. The deliberate targeting of Westerners and Jews during the Mumbai attacks raised questions about whether Lashkar was moving deeper into al-Qaeda's orbit and perhaps on a trajectory to displace Osama bin Laden's network as the next major global jihadi threat. Lashkar's expansion has serious security implications for India, Pakistan, Europe and the United States and its activities threaten to damage US-Pakistan relations. Despite growing calls for action, Pakistan is yet to take any serious steps toward dismantling Lashkar for fear of drawing it further into the insurgency raging there and because of its continued utility against India. More than a militant outfit, Lashkar also controls a vast infrastructure that delivers necessary social services to the Pakistani populace, making it all the more difficult to dismantle. Storming the World Stage traces the evolution of Lashkar-e-Taiba over more than two decades to illustrate how the group grew so powerful and to assess the threat it poses to India, the West and to Pakistan itself. The first English-language book ever written about Lashkar, it draws on in-depth field research, including interviews with senior Lashkar leaders, rank-and-file members, and officials of the Pakistani security services--some of who have helped nurture the group over the years.

Storming the World Stage

Storming the World Stage PDF Author: Stephen Tankel
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
ISBN: 0199333440
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 365

Get Book Here

Book Description
Lashkar-e-Taiba is among the most powerful militants groups in South Asia and increasingly viewed as a global terrorist threat on par with al-Qaeda. Considered Pakistan's most powerful proxy against India, the group gained public prominence after its deadly ten-person suicide assault on Mumbai in November 2008. By the time the last Lashkar terrorist was dead after nearly 60 hours, it appeared the world was facing a new menace. Boasting transnational networks stretching across several continents, there has been serious debate since 9/11 of whether Lashkar is an al-Qaeda affiliate. The deliberate targeting of Westerners and Jews during the Mumbai attacks raised questions about whether Lashkar was moving deeper into al-Qaeda's orbit and perhaps on a trajectory to displace Osama bin Laden's network as the next major global jihadi threat. Lashkar's expansion has serious security implications for India, Pakistan, Europe and the United States and its activities threaten to damage US-Pakistan relations. Despite growing calls for action, Pakistan is yet to take any serious steps toward dismantling Lashkar for fear of drawing it further into the insurgency raging there and because of its continued utility against India. More than a militant outfit, Lashkar also controls a vast infrastructure that delivers necessary social services to the Pakistani populace, making it all the more difficult to dismantle. Storming the World Stage traces the evolution of Lashkar-e-Taiba over more than two decades to illustrate how the group grew so powerful and to assess the threat it poses to India, the West and to Pakistan itself. The first English-language book ever written about Lashkar, it draws on in-depth field research, including interviews with senior Lashkar leaders, rank-and-file members, and officials of the Pakistani security services--some of who have helped nurture the group over the years.

Storming the World Stage

Storming the World Stage PDF Author: Stephen Tankel
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0190238038
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 365

Get Book Here

Book Description
Lashkar-e-Taiba is among the most powerful militants groups in South Asia and increasingly viewed as a global terrorist threat on par with al-Qaeda. Considered Pakistan's most powerful proxy against India, the group gained public prominence after its deadly ten-person suicide assault on Mumbai in November 2008. By the time the last Lashkar terrorist was dead after nearly 60 hours, it appeared the world was facing a new menace. Boasting transnational networks stretching across several continents, there has been serious debate since 9/11 of whether Lashkar is an al-Qaeda affiliate. The deliberate targeting of Westerners and Jews during the Mumbai attacks raised questions about whether Lashkar was moving deeper into al-Qaeda's orbit and perhaps on a trajectory to displace Osama bin Laden's network as the next major global jihadi threat. Lashkar's expansion has serious security implications for India, Pakistan, Europe and the United States and its activities threaten to damage US-Pakistan relations. Despite growing calls for action, Pakistan is yet to take any serious steps toward dismantling Lashkar for fear of drawing it further into the insurgency raging there and because of its continued utility against India. More than a militant outfit, Lashkar also controls a vast infrastructure that delivers necessary social services to the Pakistani populace, making it all the more difficult to dismantle. Storming the World Stage traces the evolution of Lashkar-e-Taiba over more than two decades to illustrate how the group grew so powerful and to assess the threat it poses to India, the West and to Pakistan itself. The first English-language book ever written about Lashkar, it draws on in-depth field research, including interviews with senior Lashkar leaders, rank-and-file members, and officials of the Pakistani security services--some of who have helped nurture the group over the years.

In Their Own Words

In Their Own Words PDF Author: C. Christine Fair
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0190062045
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages :

Get Book Here

Book Description
This path-breaking volume reveals a little-known aspect of how Lashkar-e-Tayyaba, a jihadist terrorist group, functions in Pakistan and beyond by translating and commenting upon a range of publications produced and disseminated by Dar-ul-Andlus, the publishing wing of LeT. Only a fraction of LeT's cadres ever see battle: most of them are despatched on nation-wide "prozelytising" (dawa) missions to convert Pakistanis to their particular interpretation of Islam, in support of which LeT has developed a sophisticated propagandist literature. This canon of Islamist texts is the most popular and potent weapon in LeT's arsenal, and its scrutiny affords insights into how and who the group recruits; LeT's justification for jihad; its vision of itself in global and regional politics; the enemies LeT identifies and the allies it cultivates; and how and where it conducts its operations. Particular attention is paid to the role that LeT assigns to women by examining those writings which heap extravagant praise upon the mothers of aspirant jihadis, who bless their operations and martyrdom. It is only by understanding LeT's domestic functions as set out in these texts that one can begin to appreciate why Pakistan so fiercely supports it, despite mounting international pressure to disband the group.

Computational Analysis of Terrorist Groups: Lashkar-e-Taiba

Computational Analysis of Terrorist Groups: Lashkar-e-Taiba PDF Author: V.S. Subrahmanian
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 1461447690
Category : Computers
Languages : en
Pages : 233

Get Book Here

Book Description
Computational Analysis of Terrorist Groups: Lashkar-e-Taiba provides an in-depth look at Web intelligence, and how advanced mathematics and modern computing technology can influence the insights we have on terrorist groups. This book primarily focuses on one famous terrorist group known as Lashkar-e-Taiba (or LeT), and how it operates. After 10 years of counter Al Qaeda operations, LeT is considered by many in the counter-terrorism community to be an even greater threat to the US and world peace than Al Qaeda. Computational Analysis of Terrorist Groups: Lashkar-e-Taiba is the first book that demonstrates how to use modern computational analysis techniques including methods for “big data” analysis. This book presents how to quantify both the environment in which LeT operate, and the actions it took over a 20-year period, and represent it as a relational database table. This table is then mined using sophisticated data mining algorithms in order to gain detailed, mathematical, computational and statistical insights into LeT and its operations. This book also provides a detailed history of Lashkar-e-Taiba based on extensive analysis conducted by using open source information and public statements. Each chapter includes a case study, as well as a slide describing the key results which are available on the authors’ web sites. Computational Analysis of Terrorist Groups: Lashkar-e-Taiba is designed for a professional market composed of government or military workers, researchers and computer scientists working in the web intelligence field. Advanced-level students in computer science will also find this valuable as a reference book.

Jihad and Dawah

Jihad and Dawah PDF Author: Samina Yasmin
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 1849047103
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 335

Get Book Here

Book Description
This book provides a detailed account of the emergence and metamorphoses of Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) and its political arm, Jamat ud Dawah, since the early 1990s. Linking the group's narratives to the process of Islamization in Pakistan and divergent views on the country's Islamic identity, it is the first systematic analysis of how the organization, globally reviled as the perpetrator of the 2008 Mumbai Bombings, has developed its conception of da'wah (proselytizing) and jihad in response to regional and global developments. Samina Yasmeen makes extensive use of Urdu materials (pamphlets, books, ephemera) by Markaz Da'wah wal Irshad, the parent organization of LeT, to examine the 'insider's vision' of the dominant threats to Pakistan and the Muslim ummah, as well as strategies for countering these threats. She argues that while adopting an oppositional narrative vis-à-vis India and the West, LeT has increasingly turned its attention to da'wah narratives within Pakistan engaging with broader spectrums of society. Women have increasingly been assigned significant agency in this narrative, and JuD's activism in education and social welfare has helped it acquire social capital. This, in turn, prompts a re-imagining of the movement's relationship with the Pakistani military.

Call for Transnational Jihad

Call for Transnational Jihad PDF Author: Arif Jamal
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781633350007
Category : Islam and politics
Languages : en
Pages : 320

Get Book Here

Book Description


Pakistan Under Siege

Pakistan Under Siege PDF Author: Madiha Afzal
Publisher: Brookings Institution Press
ISBN: 0815729464
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 159

Get Book Here

Book Description
Over the last fifteen years, Pakistan has come to be defined exclusively in terms of its struggle with terror. But are ordinary Pakistanis extremists? And what explains how Pakistanis think? Much of the current work on extremism in Pakistan tends to study extremist trends in the country from a detached position—a top-down security perspective, that renders a one-dimensional picture of what is at its heart a complex, richly textured country of 200 million people. In this book, using rigorous analysis of survey data, in-depth interviews in schools and universities in Pakistan, historical narrative reporting, and her own intuitive understanding of the country, Madiha Afzal gives the full picture of Pakistan’s relationship with extremism. The author lays out Pakistanis’ own views on terrorist groups, on jihad, on religious minorities and non-Muslims, on America, and on their place in the world. The views are not radical at first glance, but are riddled with conspiracy theories. Afzal explains how the two pillars that define the Pakistani state—Islam and a paranoia about India—have led to a regressive form of Islamization in Pakistan’s narratives, laws, and curricula. These, in turn, have shaped its citizens’ attitudes. Afzal traces this outlook to Pakistan’s unique and tortured birth. She examines the rhetoric and the strategic actions of three actors in Pakistani politics—the military, the civilian governments, and the Islamist parties—and their relationships with militant groups. She shows how regressive Pakistani laws instituted in the 1980s worsened citizen attitudes and led to vigilante and mob violence. The author also explains that the educational regime has become a vital element in shaping citizens’ thinking. How many years one attends school, whether the school is public, private, or a madrassa, and what curricula is followed all affect Pakistanis’ attitudes about terrorism and the rest of the world. In the end, Afzal suggests how this beleaguered nation—one with seemingly insurmountable problems in governance and education—can change course.

Lashkar-i-Taiba

Lashkar-i-Taiba PDF Author: Ryan Clarke
Publisher: Strategic Studies Institute
ISBN: 1584874295
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 65

Get Book Here

Book Description
This paper discusses the foundation of Lashkar-i-Taiba (LeT), the development of its modus operandi, and investigates LeT's activities in India, Pakistan, and the Kashmir region. LeT's fundraising methods and relationships with regional state and nonstate actors such as Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) and Dawood Ibrahim's D-Company are analyzed. The impact on domestic Islamist terrorism in India are addressed. While LeT has been a vital component of Islamabad's regional strategy in the past, it has grown beyond its former patron's control. It operates independently of the political process, and has expanded its agenda well beyond Kashmir. These developments challenge the long-held notion that sustained use of regulars can achieve limited objectives in an asymmetric conflict and should serve as a clear warning to other state sponsors of terrorism. Contrary to many analyses, LeT is not likely to sacrifice its independence and come under Al-Qaeda's umbrella. Instead, it will continue to evolve into a distinctive, South Asia-centric terrorist actor in its own right while still receiving aid from fringe elements in Pakistan's security and intelligence apparatus and elsewhere. This will not only allow LeT to continue to plan future Mumbai-style terrorist attacks in India from safe havens in Pakistan, but will also allow LeT to guide and assist the predominantly indigenous Indian Mujahideen.

In Their Own Words

In Their Own Words PDF Author: C. Christine Fair
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0190062037
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 307

Get Book Here

Book Description
This path-breaking volume reveals a little-known aspect of how Lashkar-e-Tayyaba, a jihadist terrorist group, functions in Pakistan and beyond by translating and commenting upon a range of publications produced and disseminated by Dar-ul-Andlus, the publishing wing of LeT. Only a fraction of LeT's cadres ever see battle: most of them are despatched on nation-wide "prozelytising" (dawa) missions to convert Pakistanis to their particular interpretation of Islam, in support of which LeT has developed a sophisticated propagandist literature. This canon of Islamist texts is the most popular and potent weapon in LeT's arsenal, and its scrutiny affords insights into how and who the group recruits; LeT's justification for jihad; its vision of itself in global and regional politics; the enemies LeT identifies and the allies it cultivates; and how and where it conducts its operations. Particular attention is paid to the role that LeT assigns to women by examining those writings which heap extravagant praise upon the mothers of aspirant jihadis, who bless their operations and martyrdom. It is only by understanding LeT's domestic functions as set out in these texts that one can begin to appreciate why Pakistan so fiercely supports it, despite mounting international pressure to disband the group.

Not War, Not Peace?

Not War, Not Peace? PDF Author: George Perkovich
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0199089701
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 310

Get Book Here

Book Description
The Mumbai blasts of 1993, the attack on the Indian Parliament in 2001, Mumbai 26/11—cross-border terrorism has continued unabated. What can India do to motivate Pakistan to do more to prevent such attacks? In the nuclear times that we live in, where a military counter-attack could escalate to destruction beyond imagination, overt warfare is clearly not an option. But since outright peace-making seems similarly infeasible, what combination of coercive pressure and bargaining could lead to peace? The authors provide, for the first time, a comprehensive assessment of the violent and non-violent options available to India for compelling Pakistan to take concrete steps towards curbing terrorism originating in its homeland. They draw on extensive interviews with senior Indian and Pakistani officials, in service and retired, to explore the challenges involved in compellence and to show how non-violent coercion combined with clarity on the economic, social and reputational costs of terrorism can better motivate Pakistan to pacify groups involved in cross-border terrorism. Not War, Not Peace? goes beyond the much discussed theories of nuclear deterrence and counterterrorism strategy to explore a new approach to resolving old conflicts.