Largely Off American Radar, Free to Evolve in Pakistan

Lashkar-e-Taiba Develops Special Forces Capabilities and Potential Access to Chinese Bioweapons

Dr Ryan Clarke, Dr. Xiaoxu Sean Lin and LJ Eads

Abstract

This report examines the evolution and operational trajectory of Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), a Pakistani state-sponsored terrorist organization that has demonstrated unprecedented strategic capabilities among non-state actors. Rooted in Pakistan’s longstanding use of Islamist militant proxies since 1947, LeT has received consistent support from the Pakistani military and the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), enabling it to develop sophisticated asymmetric warfare tactics, including the Fidayeen operation—an advanced form of suicide attack involving prolonged, multi-target engagements. The group’s 2008 assault in Mumbai represented the first instance of a terrorist organization executing a special forces–style amphibious operation in an urban environment, signaling a qualitative leap in militant operational design.

LeT’s enduring ties to criminal syndicates such as D-Company and its perception of itself as superior to other jihadist organizations underscore its ambitions beyond South Asia, despite underestimation by Western security analysts. The December 2024 Fidayeen-style attack in New Orleans, conducted by U.S. Army veteran Shamsud-Din Jabbar, demonstrates LeT’s ideological and tactical imprint emerging on American soil. Additionally, the report raises concerns regarding a covert bioweapons facility in Pakistan jointly operated by China’s Wuhan Institute of Virology and Pakistan’s Defense Science and Technology Organization (DESTO), which could pose future proliferation risks, including to LeT.

The study concludes by arguing for a recalibration of U.S. counterterrorism priorities to recognize LeT as a Tier One threat. It calls for the dismantling of LeT’s global operational networks before the group potentially integrates emerging biological and technological weapons into its tactics, posing significant risks to homeland security.