Lashkar-e-Taiba is a Pakistan-based movement which wants the removal of Indian forces from the disputed Jammu and Kashmir region.

Set up in about 1990 with aid, it is claimed, from the Pakistan authorities, its overall objective is the establishment of an Islamic caliphate throughout India, China and much of southeast Asia.

It is said to have been inspired by Osama Bin Laden and to have maintained close ties with Al-Qaeda to this day.

Lashkar-e-Taiba operatives are understood to have been trained at Al-Qaeda camps in Afghanistan until the US invasion in 2001.

Since that time Lashkar-e-Taiba training grounds in Pakistan have reciprocated by hosting Al-Qaeda militants, including, it is said, one of the London bombers, Shehzad Tanweer.

Designated a terrorist group by the US in 2003, Lashkar-e-Taiba’s tactics include the use of suicide bombings, with attacks conducted on both military and civilian targets.

Its emblem is a black AK-47 rifle balanced on an open Koran set against a background of a blue sky and a rising sun.

Other than its activities in the disputed territories, Lashkar-e-Taiba has also carried out a number of atrocities in India.

In December 2001 its members raided the Indian parliament, killing at least 14 people. Ten months later an attack on a Hindu temple in Gujarat left 28 dead and the following year a twin bombing in Mumbai killed 52 and wounded more than three times as many.

One of its most recent confirmed attacks was in October 2005, when co-ordinated suicide bombings were staged in the capital, New Delhi, during the Diwali festival, killing more than 60 people and wounding more than 200.

The group has also been linked to the 2006 train bombings, again in Mumbai, in which 209 died and more than 1,000 were injured.

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