The reported claim of a spokesman of the Lashkar-e-Toiba in Pakistan that two of its suicide cadres were responsible for the murderous attack on some Indian Army personnel inside the Red Fort in New Delhi on December 22,2000, is under verification by the Indian security agencies.

The Lashkar and its political wing called the Markaz Dawa Al Irshad have for many years been calling for the expansion of the so-called jihad to the rest of India from Jammu & Kashmir for creating two independent homelands for the Muslims of South and North India. As a first step in this jihad, it had in the past called for intensified activities in Hyderabad and Junagadh, which it looks upon as Pakistani territory.

The Red Fort, as the seat of the Muslim rulers of the past, is an important symbol in its eyes.

While reporting the Red Fort attack on December 22, 2000, sections of the foreign media described the Lashkar as a Kashmiri militant organisation. It is not. It is a Pakistani organisation based in Pakistan and operating from there. It is a member of Osama bin Laden's International Islamic Front For Jihad Against the US and Israel.

The wrong perceptions abroad about this organisation need to be corrected vigorously.

rest of the article is at http://www.saag.org/papers2/paper175.htm

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