No matter how much Pakistan distances itself from terrorism and organisations promoting the same, data points to a dark reality that Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) is only expanding its footprint in the country. Targeting students, young men and women, teachers, labourers with dedicated bodies, LeT has spread an underground network wide across Pakistan.
Led by 26/11 mastermind Hafiz Saeed, the terror group is undergoing its deepest and most organised expansion in years. A new video featuring Saeed’s son Talha Saeed, reveals how the group has quietly established parallel organisations for students, teachers, labourers, young men, women, and even children.
While LeT’s political front, the Pakistan Markazi Muslim League (PMML), acts as its public-facing shield, the group now functions through a network designed to appear fragmented and harmless. Most of these feeder wings do not openly associate with PMML or LeT, giving the organisation plausible deniability, even as senior LeT figures continue to appear at their events.
What makes LeT’s new expansion strategy more dangerous for India?
According to security experts, the group’s expansion is not random, but is strategic and ideological. LeT is combining political influence, social-service optics, and Salafi-jihadist indoctrination. “LeT’s growing footprint is a worrying trend for India. The deeper the network, the larger the future pool of recruits,” warns Dr Smruti Pattnaik of the Manohar Parrikar Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses.
A review of hundreds of posts from these organisations by NDTV showed a systematic, bottom-up recruitment ecosystem, allowing LeT to penetrate Pakistan’s cities, universities, and neighbourhoods with unprecedented depth.
Through welfare-style activities like flood relief, first-aid workshops, cleanliness drives, Quran recitation camps, LeT creates a façade of benevolence, using social outreach as a Trojan horse for extremist messaging. At the very face of it, while the measures might look unharming, the terror group is indoctrinating communities on a deeper level.
What are LeT’s front organisations teaching?
1. Muslim Student League (MSL)
One of LeT’s most influential expansion arms, the MSL, now operates actively across Punjab, Sindh, and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. It promotes LeT’s Salafi-jihadist worldview under soft labels like study circles and personality development seminars. Its core activities include:
- Ideological indoctrination through campus study groups
- Seminars on personality development, first-aid, and blood donation
- Spiritual and motivational camps blending religion with nationalism
- First-aid, blood donation and relief drives to build public goodwill
- Smog and pollution awareness marches to appear socially responsible
2. Muslim Youth League
This wing taps into Pakistan’s massive unemployed youth population. Through community events like sports tournaments, health camps, informal Quran gatherings, it shapes young minds (post college youth) while keeping LeT ideology at the core.
3. Muslim Kids League
Perhaps the most alarming development is the creation of a wing targeting children under 10 or below class 5. Launched in 2023, this wing’s activities include Quran recitation, Islamic storytelling, picnics and games. The league even has a dedicated book and mobile app teaching Islamic values.
In 2023, US-designated terrorists including Hafiz Abdul Rauf and others addressed children at an event in Lahore, delivering lessons on “character-building” and “challenge handling”, a subtle method to instil obedience and extremist symbolism early on. While Rauf’s session was focused on “invitation towards Allah”, Iqbal and Dar addressed children on “challenge handling” and “time management”.
What is the role of PMML in this ecosystem?
The Pakistan Markazi Muslim League, led by Talha Saeed, provides political cover ranging from contesting elections, issuing statements, and coordinating expansion across provinces. Although PMML failed to secure seats in Pakistan’s 2024 elections, its leadership is filled with individuals designated as terrorists by the US, India, other countries, underscoring its role as LeT’s political mask.
LeT’s mission remains unchanged – integrate Kashmir into Pakistan, undermine India through jihad. The group has conducted over 250 attacks in India, killing more than 1,000 civilians across Delhi, Maharashtra, Telangana, Uttar Pradesh, and Jammu & Kashmir. Now, with deeper access across Pakistan’s social strata, LeT’s grassroots penetration makes it even harder to detect, dismantle, and far more dangerous for India’s internal security.