US wants probe into Pak jihadis in Afghan

The United States has asked Pakistan's interior ministry to conduct a probe into Pakistani jihadis, including Lashkar-e-Tayiba operatives, joining militant groups in Afghanistan to attack North Atlantic Treaty Organisation and allied forces, a media report said on Tuesday.

The US has sought a probe into Pakistani militants joining rebel groups in Afghanistan, especially in Kunar province, interior ministry officials were quoted as saying by the Daily Times newspaper.

NATO and International Security Assistance Force commanders in Afghanistan have confirmed the presence of "modern and sophisticated Punjabi Taliban" in Kunar province. These elements are a "more militant section of the Pakistan-backed Lashker-e-Tayiba" that has broken away from the group and refused to take orders from LeT chief Hafiz Muhammad Saeed, the report claimed.

The report also quoted an unnamed former spy chief as saying "that the new rogue part of Jamaat-ud-Dawah fighting in Pakistan could well be those who were behind 26/11 in Mumbai, you never know". The group that split from the LeT comprises members of the Tehreek-ul-Mujahideen and the breakaway Kairun Naas faction of the LeT that was formed by the more fanatical Ahl-e-Hadith, which organised the 1990 Kashmir Conference that was attended by Hafiz Saeed and Sajid Mir, the report claimed.

The report claimed there were two reasons for the split -- Pakistani intelligence agencies have decided to split jihadi groups as part of a policy to make them weaker, and sectarian and ideological tensions within the Ahl-e-Hadith faction about the concept of jihad as the more fanatical group fighting in Afghanistan is closer to Arab mujahideen.

In the past, a faction split from the LeT's front organisation Jamaat-ud-Dawah in 2004, when armed clashes broke out in its headquarters and the breakaway Kairun Naas faction vowed to kill Hafiz Saeed.

Saeed had joined the Afghan jihad late in 1987 on the insistence of Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi, the operational commander of the LeT who is currently in jail after being arrested on charges of planning and facilitating the 2008 Mumbai attacks.

The report further claimed that the organisational structure of the JuD and LeT were hurt by accusations from within the groups about Saeed's involvement in nepotism and corruption, his second marriage with a dead militant's widow.

Saeed also appointed his brother-in-law Maulana Abdul Rehman Makki as second in command of the JuD and this did not go down well with other militant commanders, especially Lakhvi, as it was seen as an attempt by Saeed to control the finances of the JuD. Lakhvi also disapproved of Saeed's decision in 2001 to rename the Markaz Dawat Wal Irshad, the parent body of the LeT, as JuD.

The report claimed Lakhvi controlled most of JuD's properties in Sindh and the Muridke centre near Lahore following his rift with Saeed. Lakhvi has developed links with Arab militants in Pakistan and married his sister to top Al Qaeda terrorist Abdul Rehman Sherahi. In turn, Sherahi helped Lakhvi connect with Al Qaeda and Arab militants and heavily invested in LeT's infrastructure.