On the very first day of its launch Wyeth, the online magazine of the militant outfit Lashkar-e-Taiba, professed its support to what it described as “the common man’s struggle in Kashmir”, and declared that the current year would turn out to a tough one for the government forces.
Some five months ago, Lashkar had announced its plan to complement its armed campaign against government forces in Kashmir with an online magazine, and today it unveiled its electronic platform with an interview with its spokesperson Dr Abdullah Ghaznavi.
The web portal quoted Ghaznavi as saying that Pakistan was not deploying proxies to fight the forces in Kashmir as the country was capable of handling any situation. “There are many countries in the world that have less divine faith and high military numbers and use proxies, but Pakistan is not one of them as the nation is capable of handling any situation.”
He told the web portal that Pakistan has “moral and legal” obligation to support the state and the “struggle” of its people, calling it an “unfinished” agenda of the partition.
The web portal further quoted Ghaznavi as saying that there were other fringe groups which do not have a clear agenda and often ended up helping India and its cause. “Lashkar-e-Taiba would inform them on a lot of things and was distributing the Quran and Hadith to guide them.”
Ghaznavi told the Lashkar web portal that “LeT is the common man’s struggle and represents the true aspirations of the people of Jammu and Kashmir”.
The security establishment in Kashmir seems to be preparing to neutralize what it terms as propaganda by the militant outfit. “Dealing with this kind of online propaganda and building a counter-narrative is necessary to bring normalcy in the Valley. It has been countered in proper way,” a senior police officer said.
He said LeT is trying to engage more local boys into militancy and the online magazine is the best way to reach out to the youth in the valley. The senior police officer said that LeT has been using latest technology. “Now they will lure more boys but measures to deal with it will be found.”
The launch of LeT’s online magazine comes a day after the government forces released a new hit-list of 21 most-wanted militants belonging to HizbulMujahideen, Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), Jaish-e-Muhammad (JeM) and other militant organizations active in Kashmir.
The list includes three LeT militants, who are active in Hajin and Pulwama. All of them have been placed under the A+ category. Apart from these, the list also names seven other most wanted militants from Hizb and two from JeM.