It is the one terrorist organization whose operations India wants to nip for good. The recent busting of several purported attacks by the separatist terrorist group the Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) with active links with al-Qaeda has prompted the Indian government to approach the United Nations to blacklist the outfit. A UN ban translates into an automatic worldwide clampdown on financial assets and the freezing of bank accounts by member countries of any organization that fronts for the LeT, which has already been banned by the United States, Canada and some European countries.The LeT has a history of orchestrating attacks in India and its cadres are well networked, as well as very savvy with computers, gadgets and gizmos, making them very difficult to track. Some of its bold attacks include an attempt to storm the Indian parliament on December 13, 2001, which triggered a military standoff with Pakistan and brought the neighbors close to a fourth war; India also holds the LeT responsible for the killing of 37 and injuring more than 80 Hindu devotees assembled for prayer at the Akshardham temple in September 2002 in the state of Gujarat. The attacks were seen as revenge killings for the communal riots in the state earlier in the same year in which more than 2,000 Muslims were feared killed. Like al-Qaeda, LeT cadres are generally not mercenaries out to make a fast buck from the cash-laden terror industry, but indoctrinated youths driven by the desire to kill in the name of a distorted jihad.
In the past couple of weeks, Indian police have defeated quite a few LeT plans, revealing a plot to create mayhem in the country, which is what has prompted the request by the Indian Home Ministry to the UN. Police in New Delhi who killed three LeT terrorists recently have said that evidence has been recovered to show that a plan was being hatched to attack the top software offices in the country located at Bangalore, as well as the Indian Military Academy in Dehradun that trains young army officers. Attacking software offices hits at one of the most international symbols of Indian success and could set off a wave of panic from potential foreign investors, as well as multinationals, that could hobble the rapid pace of India's economic progress. With India pushing for the case of a global ban on the LeT, the "war against terror" continues to rage in the country, as in the rest of the world.