A Kashmiri nationalist website reports that the terrorist group known as Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) has thanked global Muslim Brotherhood leader Youssef Qaradawi for declaring that Kashmiris were fighting a “Jihad” against the Indian Army. According to the report:
Lashkar-e-Toiba Wednesday thanked the international Islamic clerics for their support to Kashmir’s freedom movement. A spokesman of the LeT Dr Abdullah Gaznavi called Rising Kashmir office and said LeT welcomes the statement of International Union of Scholars President, Dr Yusuf Akl Qaradawi and other Ulemas who have termed the ongoing freedom movement in Kashmir as Jihad. “Islamic scholars should support the freedom movement in Kashmir. Time is not far when Kashmir will win freedom from the Indian occupation,” he said in a telephonic statement. He said that the statement of international Islamic scholars was a reflection of how seriously Kashmir issue was being taken by the international community. Earlier, several Ulemas had criticized the Tehreek-e-Nifaz-e-Shariat Muhammadi Amir Maulana Sufi Muhammad for declaring that jihad was not mandatory in Kashmir. Sufi Muhammad had said that the ongoing war in Kashmir was only for independence and not for the restoration of Sharia and therefore could not be termed as Jihad. Following this Qaradawi said “Kashmiris were properly fighting Jihad against the Indian occupational army.
A profile on LeT describes the group as follows:
Lashkar-e-Taiba, meaning “army of the pure” has been active since 1993. It is the military wing of the well-funded Pakistani Islamist organization Markaz-ad-Dawa-wal-Irshad, which was founded in 1989 and recruited volunteers to fight alongside the Taliban. During the 1990s, experts say LeT received instruction and funding from Pakistan’s intelligence agency, the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), in exchange for a pledge to target Hindus in Jammu and Kashmir and to train Muslim extremists on Indian soil. Pakistan’s government has repeatedly denied allegations of supporting terrorism.
The profile goes on to say that until it was banned by Pakistan in 2002, LeT had claimed responsibility for numerous terrorist attacks but since being outlawed has denied responsibility for any attacks including the November 2008 attack in Mumbai. India has alleged that LeT was behind the Mumbai attacks.
The global Muslim Brotherhood generally holds to the doctrine of “defensive Jihad” based on the idea the violence is permissible where Muslims or Muslim honor or land are deemed to be under attack.