NBC reported on Monday that Indian authorities have seized American weapons from Islamist terrorist groups active in Kashmir, a region of India that has been the center of conflict with Pakistan and Islamist militants for years.
When US forces were hastily withdrawn from Afghanistan in August 2021, the weapons and equipment left behind by the US military made their way into the hands of the Taliban, who now control the country. Since January 2022, evidence emerged online to suggest that some of the weapons left in Afghanistan are being delivered to extremist groups in Pakistan- namely Lashkar-e-Taiba and Jaish-e-Mohammad. Together, these groups are responsible for dozens of attacks that have left hundreds dead over the past few decades. With close ties to Al Qaeda and the Taliban, these groups have regional ambitions to annex India-controlled Kashmir to Pakistan, and they have international goals to destroy the United States, Israel, India, and other enemies of their cause.
Both Jaish-e-Mohammad and Lashkar-e-Taiba were designated Foreign Terrorist Organizations by the US State Department in 2001.
Jaish-e-Mohammad was founded in the early 2000s with the goal of claiming Kashmir for Pakistan and instituting a fundamentalist Islamic government. According to the Stanford Center for International Security and Cooperation, Jaish-e-Mohammad shifted its priorities to include opposing the US presence in Afghanistan sometime in 2008. Stanford also reports that Jaish-e-Mohammad’s founder collaborated with Osama bin Laden on multiple occasions and received bin Laden’s support during Jaish-e-Mohammad’s founding. In 2002, Jaish-e-Mohammad kidnapped and murdered American journalist, Daniel Pearl. This group has a proven track record of unspeakable violence and a deep hatred for the United States.
Like Jaish-e-Mohammad, Lashkar-e-Taiba shares ambitions to claim Kashmir for Pakistan and destroy the United States and its allies. Lashkar-e-Taiba has killed hundreds of people in its attacks and recruits radicalized individuals all around the world, including within the United States. Though it is hard to define the scale of Lashkar-e-Taiba’s membership, it is believed that they count thousands of individuals among their ranks. They fund their activities in part through charity front groups like Jamaat-ud-Dawa, who ostensibly distribute humanitarian aid to people in Pakistan, but also help fund the group’s terrorist activities. In 2008 the United States and the United Nations placed multiple sanctions on Lashkar-E-Taiba leaders. In that same year, Lashkar-e-Taiba terrorists killed nearly 200 people in the city of Mumbai, directing a considerable amount of violence towards perceived foreigners, especially Israelis.
According to researchers at Stanford University, Lashkar-e-Taiba is believed to be one of the paramilitary groups used by Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence to sow chaos and violence in India. Pakistan officially disavowed the group in more recent years, but they remain active in the country.
Not only has this violence resulted in staggering numbers of deaths, but it has escalated tensions between India and Pakistan, both of whom possess nuclear weapons. Since the fall of Kabul, American weapons and foreign policy failures are now laid bare across the region. This is especially concerning, as India is one of the United States’ most valuable allies in countering the rise of an increasingly hostile China.
The American withdrawal from Afghanistan will continue to have disastrous effects on global affairs and national security, as the use of abandoned American weapons by extremist groups demonstrates.
