Reduced to rubble during Op Sindoor, Pakistan now funding Lashkar-e-Taiba's HQ reconstruction

New Delhi [India], September 14 (HBTV): Lashkar-e-Taiba’s (LeT) headquarters at Muridke, known as Markaz Taiba, was reduced to rubble by Indian Air Force strikes in Operation Sindoor on May 7, 2025. The precision attack destroyed key facilities including cadre accommodation, weapons storage areas and the group’s Umm-ul-Qura training blocks, crippling LeT’s command hub.

Fresh intelligence inputs now reveal that Pakistan is directly funding the reconstruction of the terror outfit’s base. Islamabad has already allocated PKR 4 crore to LeT, while the group has estimated the rebuilding cost at over PKR 15 crore. Senior commanders Maulana Abu Zar and Yunus Shah Bukhari are overseeing the project, with a deadline set for February 5, 2026, to coincide with LeT’s annual Kashmir Solidarity Day convention.

According to a dossier prepared by agencies, ‘LeT cadres have also launched fundraising campaigns under the guise of flood relief, repeating a historical pattern where humanitarian aid was diverted to terror infrastructure. In 2005, nearly 80% of earthquake relief funds collected by LeT’s front, Jamaat-ud-Dawa, were channelled into building militant camps.’

Despite Pakistan’s repeated claims at global platforms of fighting terrorism, the dossier confirms that its Army and ISI remain complicit, ensuring LeT’s survival and resurgence. Analysts warn that this deliberate rebuilding effort reflects Islamabad’s double standards on counter-terrorism and raises the likelihood of fresh cross-border attacks being planned from Pakistani soil.

Markaz Taiba in Muridke has long served as both a residential hub for LeT commanders and as a centre for radicalisation and military training. Established in 2000 at Nangal Sahdan, Sheikhupura, Punjab, the complex has provided arms training, intelligence courses and dawa’h sessions for recruits from Pakistan and abroad. Around 1,000 students are enrolled annually in various courses, highlighting its role in producing cadres for LeT.

Osama Bin Laden had previously financed INR 10 million for the construction of a mosque and guest house within the Markaz Taiba complex. At the behest of Pakistan’s ISI, perpetrators of the 26/11 Mumbai attacks, including Ajmal Kasab, were trained at this facility. David Coleman Headley and Tahawwur Hussain Rana, two key conspirators of the Mumbai attacks, also visited Muridke with Abdul Rehman Sayed alias Pasha, Haroon and Khurram on instructions from Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi.

(ANI)