New Delhi, May 26 (IANS) The Lashkar-e-Taiba leadership has been meeting several persons, part of the political class, recently. These meetings have come under immense scrutiny by the Indian agencies.

An official said that the Lashkar-e-Taiba is planning a two-pronged strategy to revive its Kashmir narrative. These strategies include increasing the number of terrorist launchpads in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) and also driving the propaganda war.

The Lashkar-e-Taiba alone has over 500 terrorists waiting to infiltrate into Jammu and Kashmir. Almost all attempts at infiltration have failed, and this has left the Lashkar-e-Taiba leadership desperate.

At a recent meeting that was held in PoK, the Lashkar-e-Taiba leadership decided to increase the number of launchpads. This is aimed at stressing the Indian security forces.

An Intelligence Bureau official said that the more launchpads there are, the more terrorists they would be waiting to infiltrate. An estimate by the Indian agencies suggests that the Lashkar-e-Taiba wants to position over a thousand terrorists at these launchpads.

The sheer number is bound to stress the security forces in India. The other part of the plan is to increase the number of infiltration attempts multi-fold. For instance, if five attempts are being made per day, the idea is to increase to at least 20. The leadership hopes that the Indian forces would fail at least once.

An official said that on the one hand, Pakistan wants to have a strong homegrown outfit in Jammu and Kashmir. However, it also wants Pakistani terrorists in the Valley to carry out big hits. It was the Lashkar-e-Taiba’s proxy, The Resistence Front, that carried out the big-ticket Pahalgam attack in which 26 innocent lives were lost.

Post Pahalgam, the Lashkar-e-Taiba was badly hit during Operation Sindoor. Its primary training facility in Muridke was destroyed during the operation that was carried out by the Indian armed forces.

Last week, Lashkar-e-Taiba founder Hafiz Saeed’s son, Talha Saeed, met Rana Sanaullah, a close aide of Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif. During the meeting, Talha Saeed apprised him about leadership issues in the Lashkar-e-Taiba. An official said that the meeting was held to convey the new plans by the Lashkar-e-Taiba.

Talha Saeed is also being told by the Pakistan establishment to make an official announcement about him taking over the outfit. The Lashkar-e-Taiba cadres have been demanding that a young leader head the outfit, while Hafiz Saeed can remain an ideological mentor.

Another meeting that caught the attention of many was the one between Talha Saeed and former Prime Minister of PoK and President of the All Jammu and Kashmir Muslim Conference, Sardar Attique Ahmed Khan. The meeting coincided with the Lashkar-e-Taiba’s latest plan for Kashmir. Saeed spoke about the need for infrastructure support. Khan was told about the plans to increase the number of launchpads in PoK. The strategy to increase the number of terrorists at these launchpads with the intention of stressing the Indian security forces was also discussed at this meeting.

While the Kashmir issue and the new strategy were the main points of discussion, Saeed also spoke about the upcoming elections in PoK. Currently, there is an undercurrent in PoK, and recent months have witnessed protests relating to the lack of development. An official said that the Lashkar-e-Taiba leadership thinks that all these issues could be diverted if the campaign focuses largely on the Kashmir issue. This, according to them, would make the people of PoK speak about the Kashmir issue rather than the more important point of development, the official also added.

–IANS

vn/skp