Pakistani Newspaper Report: Al-Qaeda Affiliate Lashkar-e-Jhangvi Is Challenging the Pakistani State From Within

On November 12, 2011, four officials of a Pakistani military intelligence agency were killed by Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LeJ) during a Pakistani military operation in the area of Pind Dadan Khan, which is situated on the border between Jhelum and Chakwal districts of Pakistan's Punjab province.

Lashkar-e-Jhangvi is a Sunni terrorist group which in recent years has emerged as a major feeder network for Al-Qaeda. The group of militants, which kidnapped the four spies, was led by LeJ commander known to Pakistani security officials as "Dr. Arshad."

According to various Pakistani media reports, the four intelligence officials were killed after extremist elements in Punjab's provincial police department leaked the details of the Pakistani military operation, which was supposed to be a covert operation. According to a media report, Pakistani intelligence officers "mounted the undercover raid impersonating [as] devotees at the Pir Chambal shrine. However, the suspicious militants searched them and found army identity cards. The militants killed the intelligence officials and fled the area unchallenged."

In an editorial titled "Combat Infiltration," the Lahore-based newspaper Daily Times called upon the Pakistani government to combat extremist elements present inside the Pakistani security departments. The newspaper also questioned Pakistani Interior Minister Rehman Malik's statement that the intelligence officials were killed in an operation that was meant to "smoke out" the extremists, adding that the Pakistani military is not known to act against extremist organizations in the non-tribal "settled areas" of Pakistan.

The Express Tribune, in an editorial titled "Lashkar-e-Jhangvi and the State," also urged the Pakistani security establishment to move away from its fixation on an assumed India-Israel-U.S. enemy for the problems faced by Pakistan, and to confront the militant groups. It observed: "Pakistan has been seemingly trying not to fight the terrorists attached to Al-Qaeda for various reasons, and has been relying on other national hate objects like the U.S., India and Israel to deflect attention." ...