Hours before the Pakistani government cracked down on Lashkar-e-Taiba and its political wing, Jammat-ud-Dawa, Indian reporter Harinda Baweja entered the groups’ headquarters for a fascinating piece in Tehelka. The complex, near Lahore, features a hospital, schools, a madrasa, a mosque, a swimming pool, a turnip farm, a fish-breeding center, and a guest house. Firing ranges were kept out of view, but a neighbor to the complex told Baweja, “But of course it’s a training ground. You can hear slogans for jihad blaring out of loudspeakers in full volume and you can also sometimes hear the sound of gunfire.” Across the country, Jamaat-ud-Dawa operates 140 skills and 29 seminaries. “Unlike the Taliban, the Jamaat is modeled after Hamas and is not merely an army with gun-toting members but a complex and intricate organization with a social and political agenda,” Baweja writes. “It has a huge following and reports have often indicated that in its annual congregations, where Hafiz Sayeed gives a call for jihad, as many as 100,000 people are present in the sprawling Muridke compound.”
Read it at Tehelka
