Mumbai attacks resemble past LeT operations Posted by Max Bergmann

I was re-reading a 2003 book on Kashmir by my old grad school adviser, Sumantra Bose, and came across a pretty relevant description of the methods of the Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) – the group now accused of being behind last week’s attacks. The flurry of suicidal guerrilla raids that took place in Indian controlled Kashmir between 1999-200 often usually consisted of two-man guerrilla groups that would burst into an Indian military camp or other target building and would begin “firing indiscriminately from automatic rifles and lobbing grenades.” Most of these attacks were blamed on the LeT. Bose writes on p. 142:

“LeT denies that its raids are suicide missions – preferring to call them “daredevil” actions – since the group follows an ultra-orthodox version of Sunni Islam that strictly prohibits suicide, but the raids nonetheless have an undeniably suicidal character. The attackers almost never return from these penetrate and kill missions – their aim is not to save their own lives but to maximize the frightening psychological impact on the enemy by inflicting death and destruction on their targets.”

Bose notes that there were a large number of these types of attacks, and while most were directed at Indian security personnel, on a number of occasions attacks were targeted against civilians within Kashmir.  The attacks last week in Mumbai clearly resemble these past LeT attacks.

His book is highly recommended for anyone interested in what it will take to resolve Kashmir and achieve peace between India and Pakistan.