Militant groups active in Pakistan Punjab

Hafiz Saeed, founder of LeT and JuD

Some facts about major militant and Islamist groups active in Pakistan, particularly the politically influential Punjab province. The hostage-taker arrested after a brazen attack on the GHQ of Pak Army in Rawalpinidi headquarters of the army on Saturday, Oct 10, is believed to be a member of the Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, an Al Qaeda-linked group based in Punjab.

1. Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LJ) is one of the most notorious Al Qaeda-linked groups with roots in the province. It also has forged strong ties with the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) operating in the Tribal Areas.

A senior leader of LJ, Qari Muhammad Zafar, appeared before a group of journalists in South Waziristan early October along with new TTP chief Hakimullah Mehsud.

Zafar carries a $5 million reward from the US on his head for his suspected involvement in a bomb attack on the US consulate in Karachi.

LJ emerged as a sectarian group in the 1990s targeting members of the Shia community but graduated to more audacious attacks, such as the truck bombing of Islamabad's Marriott Hotel in 2008 in which 55 people were killed, as well as an assault on a Sri Lankan cricket team in which seven Pakistanis were killed. Six members of the team and a British coach were wounded.

LJ was outlawed in Pakistan in August 2001. LJ members are also involved in violence in Afghanistan. About two dozen Taliban linked to LJ and two other groups, Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan (SSP) and a splinter faction of Jaish-e-Muhammad, were suspected to be behind several attacks in Punjab in recent months.

2. Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan is a pro-Taliban anti-Shia group based in central Punjab. The group was banned in 2002 but officials say its members were involved in attacks in the province in recent months, including the burning to death of seven Christians on suspicions of blasphemy in Gojra in August.

3. Jaish-e-Muhammad is a major group with links to the Taliban and Al Qaeda. It was banned in Pakistan in 2002 after it was blamed for an attack on the Indian parliament in December 2001. The group was founded by firebrand cleric Maulana Azhar Masood shortly after his release from an Indian jail in exchange for 155 passengers of an Indian airliner hijacked to Kandahar from Kathmandu in December 1999.

Initially, the group focused its fighting on Jammu and Kashmir but later forged links with Al Qaeda and the Taliban and was suspected of involvement in several high profile attacks including the murder of US journalist Daniel Pearl in 2002 and an assassination attempt on former president Pervez Musharraf.

Rashid Rauf, a British militant suspected of being ringleader of a 2006 plot to blow up airliners over the Atlantic, was also a Jaish member.

Maulana Azhar Masood was arrested by Pakistani authorities shortly after the group was banned but security officials say he has disappeared since 2005. Presently, he is said to be in Bahawalpur.

Jaish fighters are also involved in violence in northwest Pakistan and across the border in Afghanistan.

4.Lashkar-e-Tayyaba (LT) was founded in 1990 to fight Indian rule in Kashmir. It was blamed for the terrorist attacks in Mumbai in November 2008 that killed over 170 people. LT was also blamed for the late 2001 Indian parliament attack and was banned in Pakistan in 2002.

Seven LT-linked militants are being tried for suspected involvement in the Mumbai assault but India is insisting Pakistan prosecute its founder, Hafiz Saeed, who was the attack mastermind.

UN Security Council committee in 2008 added Jamaatud Dawa, a charity headed by Saeed, to a list of people and organisations linked to Al Qaeda and the Taliban.