Sipah-e-Sahaba/Pakistan (SSP) -- Founding Group

Substantial portion from wealthy benfactors in Karachi

The LeJ aims to transform Pakistan into a Sunni state, primarily through violent means. As an anti-Shiite group, it has admitted responsibility for numerous massacres of Shias and targeted killings of Shia religious and community leaders. The LeJ has also carried out numerous attacks against Iranian interests and Iranian nationals in Pakistan. The group claimed responsibility for killing four American oil workers in Karachi in 1997, and for carrying out an assassination attempt in 1999 on then Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif.  The group is also believed to have taken part in the January 2002 kidnapping and murder of U.S. journalist Daniel Pearl.  <p><p>The entire leadership of the Lashkar-e-Jhangvi consists of Jehadis who fought against Soviet forces in Afghanistan.  A majority of its cadres are drawn from the numerous Sunni madrassas (seminaries) in Pakistan.  Being part of the broader Deoband movement, the LeJ secured considerable assistance from other Deobandi outfits, including training along with the Taliban and other Deobandi terrorists from Pakistan in Afghanistan.

Islami Inqilabi Mahaz -- Suspected Alias/Ally

Army of the Pure, Army of the Righteous, Lashkar-e-Tayyiba (LT), Lashkar-e-Toiba

Lashkar-e-Tayyiba (LeT) is the armed wing of the Pakistan-based religious organization, Markaz-ud-Dawa-wal-Irshad (MDI).  MDI is an anti-US missionary organization formed in 1989. The LeT is one of the three largest and best-trained groups fighting in Kashmir against India.  In 1994, the LeT became one of the primary recipients of funds from Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), Pakistan's external intelligence agency, after the Jamaat-e-Islami and the HM refused to accept new conditions attached to ISI money.  The LeT agreed to support Kashmir's merger with Pakistan, to attack the Hindus in the Jammu Division, and to assist in training alienated Muslim youth in the rest of India. Along with the HuA and Al Badr, the LeT is thought to be responsible for a majority of the violence in the State.<p><p>In December 2001, the United States designated the group a foreign terrorist organization.  Pakistan subsequently banned LeT and froze its assets.  LeT reorganized in an attempt to separate its military actions in Kashmir from its religious undertakings in Pakistan.