Origin: Founded the early 1980s as the military arm of the rabidly fundamentalist Markaz Dawa Wal Irshad which is affiliated to the Jamiat-e-Ahle Hadis, Pakistan.
Headquarters : Muridke, about 30 km from Lahore. The land for this huge seminary was bought with Saudi donations.

Objectives: Swears by the Ghazwa-e-Hind (holy war against India) slogan and considers its jehad in Kashmir as the gateway for the liberation of the Muslims in India.
Area of Operation: Claims to have its modules all over India but it is mainly active in Jammu and Kashmir. Has its bases in the higher reaches of north Kashmir and Rajouri-Poonch and Doda areas.

Sponsors: The Jamiat-e-Ahle Hadis, Pakistan’s ISI, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait. Gets liberal donations from the Arab Sheikhs in the name of spreading Islam and jehad in Kashmir.

Composition: A foreign mercenaries-dominated outfit that has nationals from Pakistan-Occupied Kashmir (POK) and Pakistan in its armed cadres, numbering roughly 600, in Jammu and Kashmir.

Training Camps: In POK and Kunar province of Afghanistan.

Battle Order: Led by fire-spitting Hafiz Mohammad Sayeed. Amir-e-Aala (Kashmir): Jameel-ur-Rehman. Chief Coordinator in POK: Abdul Rehman Dakhil alias Abu Asbir. Chief commander in the Valley : Shamas

Of all the jehadi groups in Kashmir, the Lashkar-e-Toiba (LET) is the only one which still retains its predominantly foreign mercenary character. Only 10 per cent of its cadres are believed to be local Kashmiris, mostly for logistic support. It has operational linkages with the Hizbul Mujahideen, a predominantly Kashmir militant group, for such support.
On a larger scale, the LET draws funds and fighters from an elaborate network of madarsas (religious seminaries) and financiers in the ISI, besides sheikhs in Saudi Arabia and Kuwait. Until recently, the LET had strong Taliban connections and was using Afghan territory for running 121-day training courses for its Kashmir-bound jehadis. Its training camps, also located in POK, follows a military regimen in high altitude field craft and handling of sophisticated weapons and communication systems. Those opting for jehad get a money packet at the end of their tenure in Kashmir. In the ranks of the outfit are many Afghan-trained mercenaries who have fought against the Soviets.

The LET was launched in Kashmir in the early 1990s to boost the sagging violent uprising by local armed youth.The ISI strategy was to give a dominant role to foreign mercenaries in its covert operations in Kashmir. In July 1999, soon after the Kargil war, the LET was turned into the centre-piece of the ISI’s new gameplan to bring about a qualitative shift in the militancy which was then dwindling because of pressure by security forces.

That was the time when the LET inducted highly motivated jehadis to mount suicide attacks against security formations across the Valley. Since then, the LET has been the lynchpin of fidayeen (suicide) attacks. Out of 45 such attacks so far, at least 40 were the handiwork of the LET, including the December 13 attack on Parliament and the one at Red Fort last year.
"The suicide attacks are part of the strategy to bolster militancy and inflict greater losses on the security forces," says Jammu and Kashmir police chief Ashok Kumar Suri. The LET, according to security officials, draws its strength from its stealth. Most of its cadres are shadowy figures operating under coded identities. It works through an elaborate covert wireless network in Jammu and Kashmir which has links with a master control station codenamed "Khyber" and located somewhere near the LOC in POK. All the operational instructions are passed on the wireless network in a coded language that keeps changing to defy interception.

The LET, according to intelligence agencies, has been like an "in-house" outfit of the ISI which uses it to keep the pot boiling in Kashmir. As the ISI’s most favored tanzeem, the LET gets extra consignments of cash and weapons/explosives for special operations. The LET is also the only militant group directly under the control of the ISI and is at its beck and call.