NEW DELHI: Pakistan-based mastermind of 26/11 Mumbai attacks and top Lashker-e-Taiba commander Zaki-ur Rehman Lakhvi has resurfaced for the first time after being released on bail by the Lahore high court in 2015, and is allegedly collecting donations from wheat farmers in Punjab province to fund the outfit's terror activities.
According to intelligence inputs with the Indian agencies, Lakhvi - a most-wanted terrorist in India - continues to head the outfit's operations despite being away from the public eye since his release from Rawalpindi's Adiala jail in April 2015. He resurfaced in February 2018 and is actively organising collection of donations in Punjab coinciding with the wheat harvesting season, sources told TOI.
LeT continues to raise finances through various charities, with new names lately being added to the list, despite the sword of Financial Action Task Force (FATF) hanging over Pakistan. In February this year, FATF had said it would put Pakistan back on its watch-list or "greylist" from June 2018 over its failure to crack down on terrorist outfits.
LeT chief Hafiz Saeed continues to address public meetings in Pakistan and hopes to enter the political arena by getting the Jamaat ud Dawah's political front, Milli Muslim League, to contest elections.
LeT has also launched a magazine by the name 'Wyeth' (meaning 'The Resistance in Flow') with a focus on Kashmir. The 20-page, maiden issue of the magazine, seeks to encourage and motivate Kashmiris to join terrorist ranks.
The magazine stresses that India's 'Operation All-Out' in Kashmir is backfiring as more Kashmiri youths are joining terrorist ranks.
The magazine carries an interview of LeT spokesperson Abdullah Ghaznawi where he declares: "Year 2018 would be tough for Indian Army... Our freedom struggle is heading towards conclusion. India has already lost the war and is breathing its last."
An intelligence officer claimed ‘Wyeth’ misquotes the Prophet and states that jihad is the only practical way of spreading Islam. It uses some ten-odd verses from Quran, which were relevant to the war to liberate Mecca, and tries to show that this is true religion.
“The reality and context of these verses has been correctly shown in the recent fatwa against terror in all forms, by Jamiat Ahle Hadis. The same was reiterated by King Hussein of Jordan when he visited India on March 1, at Vigyan Bhavan, where PM hosted a conference of Muslim scholars and religious heads, to welcome the King. Maulana Mehmood Madani (head of Jamiat Ulema Hind) had stressed that for Indian Muslims, nation was supreme,” said the officer.