A fragile ceasefire is in place between India and Pakistan following days of aerial strikes between the two nuclear powers. DW takes a look at the Islamist militant outfits India said it targeted.
01:34It is also designated as a terrorist group by the United Nations, India, the United States and several other countries.
01:43Pakistan banned Lashkar-e-Taiba in 2013, but its founder Hafiz Saeed reportedly still resides in the country.
01:51Lashkar-e-Taiba, founded in the 1980s, is accused of orchestrating major attacks in India,
01:58including the 2008 Mumbai attacks that killed over 160 people.
02:04Nearly a dozen gunmen arrived in Mumbai by boat and targeted key sites, including a hotel.
02:11One attacker was captured and his confession linked the plot to Pakistan.
02:15He was sentenced in 2010 and executed in 2012.
02:20Lashkar-e-Taiba has its origins at the very tail end of the Afghan jihad.
02:25By the time it became functional and operational, the Afghanistan situation had changed.
02:32The Russians had already withdrawn.
02:34Afghanistan had basically fallen into internecine warfare amongst the different jihadist organizations.
02:41And Lashkar-e-Taiba does not believe in fighting Muslims.
02:44It kills Muslims in India, but it doesn't believe in fighting Muslims, if that's a distinction without a difference.
02:48But it's an important distinction.
02:51So it actually began switching the theater from Afghanistan to Jammu Kashmir.
02:58And it did that with explicit Pakistan training.
03:00The Pakistan army helped set up its training regiment.
03:03It has a very regimented structure.
03:09It has going right down to the district and lower level commanders.
03:14And Lashkar-e-Taiba does not do suicide attacks.
03:17That's a very big misnomer about the organization.
03:20It engages in high-risk missions.
03:22Lashkar-e-Taiba is also really important to the state domestically because it opposes Islamic State.
03:28It opposes the Dale Bundy groups that are killing Pakistanis.
03:31It opposes Takferi.
03:33And it opposes all of the ethnic insurgencies.
03:36Pakistan has acknowledged Lashkar-e-Taiba's past links to violence in India, but claims it was long outlawed and disbanded.
03:44But when after the attacks in 2008, November 2008, the United States, for example, did finally, finally, it took, it wasn't until 2008 that Lashkar-e-Taiba was prescribed.
03:56And the only reason that the U.S. prescribed Lashkar-e-Taiba was because American citizens were killed and also Israelis.
04:03But what I would say, what has come of those designations?
04:07There have been very few, if any, enduring consequences as a result of these designations.
04:13So there's a kabuki theater to it.
04:16Yes, the EU.
04:17Yes, the United States.
04:18Yes, the UN recognizes these groups as prescribed organizations.
04:22They recognize specific individuals.
04:24But there's very few penalties that are actually incurred as a result of these designations.
04:33India blamed a Lashkar-linked group for carrying out the deadly attack in Pahlgaam that killed 26 civilians.
04:40New Delhi blamed Islamabad for backing the attack.
04:43Pakistan has denied the allegation and called for an independent international investigation.
04:48It tells the world that it doesn't sponsor terrorism.
04:51It tells the world that it's taking action against the groups that operate from its soil.
04:56It tells the world that Pakistani groups from its soil will not undertake operations in India or Afghanistan.
05:03This is its standard boilerplate talking point.
05:06But the fact of the matter is, is that Pakistan has been using a petting zoo of terrorists as tools of foreign policy for a very long time.
05:15It's used non-state actors in Kashmir going back to the inception of the state.
05:19So this isn't something that's, this is not a post-9-11 development.
05:24Pakistan in turn accuses India of backing separatist movements within its borders, particularly in regions like Balochistan.
05:33If you think it's untrue that Ra is not conducting operations in Pakistan, then you have to ask yourself why you're paying Ra.
05:41It's literally Ra's job.
05:44And covert operations are part of full-spectrum deterrence.
05:48But sometimes you overshoot.
05:49And so my personal view is that the timing of Pahul Gham is explained by, in some measure, this terrible terrorist attack on a train in Balochistan.
06:00The very wobbly standing of Asam Munir and the army.
06:04And the fact that some modicum of stability was returning to the valley.
06:08So I think those three factors combined explain the timing of the Pahul Gham attack.
06:14And what do the current tensions and conflict signal about the region's future?
06:20It was unprecedented, but it was also needlessly risky and doesn't have payoff.
06:25It doesn't have payoff for the following reason.
06:27It didn't change anything on the ground.
06:29It didn't change the operational capability of these terrorist organizations to operate, right?
06:35The things that were targeted could be easily re-established.
06:38But most importantly, it doesn't deter Pakistan.
06:41The international community has really shirked its obligations.
06:46Because it's really the international community that can undertake the pressures that would force Pakistan to adopt a different foreign policy.
06:54And the international community really hasn't concluded that Indian lives matter enough to undertake those initiatives.
07:00Instead, with the international community, concludes that Pakistan is too dangerous to fail.
