Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LeJ)[a] was aDeobandimilitant organization[15] that was driven by aTakfirianti-Shia ideology[16] which operated in Pakistan, while being based in SouthernAfghanistan.[17] LeJ was an offshoot of anti-Shia partySipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan (SSP). LeJ was founded by former SSP activists such asRiaz Basra,Malik Ishaq, Akram Lahori, and Ghulam Rasool Shah.[18] LeJ operated in Pakistan and Southern Afghanistan until 2024.[4]
Riaz Basra, along with Akram Lahori andMalik Ishaq, separated fromSipah-e-Sahaba and formed Lashkar-e-Jhangvi in 1996 because they had considered Sipah-e-Sahaba to "not be violent enough".
One source stated that "Almost the entire leadership" of the group, wad made up of "people who had fought in Afghanistan", referring to Pakistanis who had fought in theSoviet–Afghan War andAfghan Civil War (1989–1992).[33]
The newly formed group took its name fromSunni clericHaq Nawaz Jhangvi who was involved in anti-Shia violence in the 1980s, and also one of the founders of theSipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan (SSP).[18] Lashkar-e-Jhangvi's founders believed that the SSP had strayed from Jhangvi's ideals.[19][34] Jhangvi was killed in an attack by Shia militants in 1990.
Malik Ishaq, the operational chief of LeJ, was released after serving 14 years by theSupreme Court of Pakistan on 14 July 2011, after the Court dropped 34 of the 44 charges against him, involving the killing of around 100 people, and granted him bail in the remaining 10 cases due to lack of evidence.[35][36][37][38] In 2013, Ishaq was arrested at his home inRahim Yar Khan of thePunjab province.[39]
LeJ initially directed most of its attacks against the PakistaniShia Muslim community. It also claimed responsibility for the 1997 killing of four American oil workers inKarachi. Lashkar-e-Jhangvi had attempted to assassinate Pakistani Prime MinisterNawaz Sharif in 1999.[40] Riaz Basra himself was killed in 2002 during a failed attack he was leading on a Shia settlement nearMultan. Basra was killed due to the cross-fire between his group and the police who were assisted by armed local Shia residents.
In April 1999 the nephew of the then Ahmadi CaliphMirza Tahir Ahmad was assassinated. Some have since alleged the attack was carried about by Lashkar-e-Jhangvi.[41]
In March 2002 LeJ members bombed a bus, killing 15 people, including 11 French citizens.[42]
On 17 March 2002 at 11:00 am, two members of the Lashkar-e-Jhangvi bombed the International Protestant Church inIslamabad during a church service. Five people were killed, including two American women, two Pakistanis and an Afghan man. Forty-one more people were injured, including 27 foreigners. In July 2002 Pakistani police killed one of the alleged perpetrators and arrested four Lashkar-e-Jhangvi members in connection with the church attack. The LeJ members confessed to the killings and said the attack was in retaliation for the US attack on Afghanistan.
The Pakistani government Interior Ministry said that the suicide bomber involved in theassassination of Benazir Bhutto,[43] along with the death of 20 others inRawalpindi, belonged to Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, on 27 December 2007.[43]
LJ claimed responsibility for the2011 Mastung bus shooting which killed 26 Shia pilgrims on 20 September 2011 in the Mastung area of Balochistan. The pilgrims were travelling on a bus to Iran.[45][46] In addition, 2 others were killed in a follow-up attack on a car on its way to rescue the survivors of the bus attack.
Afghan PresidentHamid Karzai blamed LeJ fora bombing that killed 59 people at the Abu Fazal shrine in theMurad Khane district of Kabul on 6 December 2011. Most of the dead were pilgrims commemoratingAshura, the holiest day in the Shias.[47][48]
Lashkar-i-Jhangvi claimed responsibility for 13 lives lost in brutal attack on Shia pilgrims in Quetta on 28 June.[49] At least 13 people including two women and a policeman were killed and over 20 others injured on in the bomb attack on a bus mainly carrying Shia pilgrims returning from Iran. Most of the pilgrims belonged to the Hazara community.[49]
Claimed responsibility for 23 December2015 Parachinar bombing which killed 25 people and injured another 62.[57]
Claimed responsibility forattack on Police training center Quetta in Balochistan on 24 October 2016, killing at least 61 people including cadets and army officers and injuring more than 165.[58][59]
Officials fromZabul province had claimed that Lashkar-e-Jhangvi had a sanctuary in southern Afghanistan.[5] Early on in 2016, Lashkar-e-Jhangvi leader Yousuf Mansoor Khurasani had survived an insider attack in southern Afghanistan.[6]
After the groups dissolution/desolation in 2024, Lashkar-e-Jhangvi's remnants had fled to Southern Afghanistan.[clarification needed]
In 2025, following two separate agreements between Pakistan and Afghanistan, where they agreed to not allow terror attacks from their soil on each other's territories, Lashkar-e-Jhangvi's remnants had either withdrew from or scattered around Southern Afghanistan after several arrests of its former and remaining members.[63][64]
Although theTaliban have launched sweeping efforts at disarmament, including unprecedented house-to-house searches to hunt for weapons and confiscate materiel, the Taliban's way of handling of the group aims at containing them without provoking them to turn against theTaliban's government.[65]
The organization came to decline in the early 2020s with much of its leadership killed, captured or executed by Pakistani Security Forces and its rivalry from Shia militant groups (such asSipah-e-Muhammad andTehreek-e-Jaffaria), which contributed to its decline.[4]
The last Leader of the group, Akram Lahori (also known as Muhammad Ajmal) was arrested in Southern Iran in February 2024. Before his arrest, he was granted bail by a Pakistani anti-terrorism court in October 2023. In Iran, he had been pronounced guilty ofterrorism for his involvement in an anti-Shia terror group, attending bomb-making training courses and plotting terror attacks in Iran. He was sentenced to death by Iranian authorities under the anti-terror law.[67][4]
On 6 September 2024 the Naeem Bukhari group from Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, whose leader was Ata-ur-Rehman (alias Naeem Buhkari), who also had ties toAl-Qaeda while also once being arrested, declared his groups's allegiance to thePakistan Taliban. The Pakistani Taliban, through itsUmer Media channel, announced that all members of the network/group had pledged their allegiance to its leader,Mufti Noor Wali. Hafiz Qasim Ghazi, the leader of Bukhari’s faction, led the group’s formal merger with the Pakistani Taliban. The Pakistani Taliban also called on other jihadi/militant groups in Karachi to follow suit.[68][69] Reports suggest that the number of factions aligned with theTehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (Pakistani Taliban) has grown to 60, with the Naeem Bukhari group from Lashkar-e-Jhangvi being the latest addition.[69]
The last two official major incidents with the organization were in March and September 2024, when several of its remaining members were arrested or killed by Security forces during intelligence-basedCounterterrorism operations inJhang and other cities.[70][71][72]
On the 3rd of August, 2024, theCounter Terrorism Department (CTD) of Punjab arrested 3 people who were associated with 3 separate banned organizations from 3 separate locations, in order to thwart what they called "a significant terror plot".[73] These were:
Abdul Wahab fromChakwal who was associated withLeJ (Lashkar-e-Jhangvi).[73]
TheCTD recovered large caches of prohibited materials from the arrested, including 1,625 grams of explosives, three hand grenades, two IED bombs, three detonators, eight feet of safety fuse wire, 12 pamphlets, 10 stickers, and Rs 22,250 in cash.[73]
In a media statement on the 7th of October 2024, officials of Pakistan'sCounter Terrorism Department, including Deputy Inspector General Sheikh andCTD In-charge Raja Umar Khattab, identified the murderers of a CTD officer as 30-year-old Usman Qureshi, son of Ayub Qureshi, and 35-year-old Hafiz Qasim Rashid, son of Abdul Rashid Hazravi. Both were suspected members of the Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, which operated in conjunction with theTehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP). They were prime suspects in the killing of DSP Ali Raza, who was gunned down near Faisal Market, Karimabad, in July, 2024.[74]
In December 2024 an attack took place in the Makin district of South Waziristan on a Pakistan Army check post. Several media sources claimed that the attack was allegedly carried out by Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, but theTehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) officially claimed responsibility.[62]
Pakistani security officials believe that the former members of Lashkar-e-Jhangvi were also allegedly involved in this attack. According to the officials, following the dissolution of terror group, its variousclandestine cell systems have joined either theTTP,ISKP orISPP.[62]
After these, the organization has claimed no attacks and non have been reported by Pakistani authorities and is considered to be defunct. Experts have described the decline of organization as a significant boost for theGovernment of Pakistan againstTerrorism.[4]
^abAbou-Zahab, Mariam (2004). "The Sunni-Shia Conflict in Jhang (Pakistan)". In Ahmad, Imtiaz; Reifeld, Helmut (eds.).Lived Islam in South Asia: Adaptation, Accommodation & Conflict. Jor Bagh, New Delhi: Social Science Press.ISBN8187358157.
^"Pakistan Shias killed in Gilgit sectarian attack".BBC News. 16 August 2012. Retrieved11 December 2012.A predominantly Punjabi group, Lashkar-e-Jhangvi is linked with the 2002 murder of US reporter Daniel Pearl and other militant attacks, particularly in the southern city of Karachi.
^"Pakistan Faces New Wave of Attacks".Wall Street Journal. 15 October 2009. Retrieved24 September 2013.In March, gunmen attacked the Sri Lankan cricket team during its visit to Lahore, killing six police officers. That attack, officials say, was masterminded by Mohammed Aqeel, also known as Dr. Usman, a member of Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, a banned Punjabi militant outfit with strong links to the main Pakistan Taliban faction and al Qaeda. Mr. Aqeel also led the attack on the military headquarters in Rawalpindi, officials say, and was captured in the attack.
Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan
Pakistan (until 2024)
Afghanistan (until 2025)
