Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi will link with Qaeda: RAW to PMO

NEW DELHI: The release of 26/11 mastermind Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi by Pakistan could be bad news for the Middle East too as the militant could "reactivate" Lashkar-e-Taiba’s links in Syria, including with Al-Qaeda networks, the Research and Analysis Wing (R&AW) warned the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) last week.

India has seen Lakhvi as a threat to itself since the November 26, 2008 attacks in Mumbai, but R&AW insists that he is a bigger problem for the entire region.

ET has learnt that R&AW has submitted a report to the PMO saying Lakhvi’s release from Adilia jail in Pakistan on April 10 assumes greater significance in view of his past activities in the Middle East and said he had earlier directed LeT operations in Chechnya Republic, Bosnia, Herzegovina, Iraq and South Asia, and sent LeT operatives to Iraq to attack US forces there.

R&AW also pointed out that LeT formed a ‘charity wing’ Falah-e-Insaniyat Foundation (FIF) in 2009, which the LeT has been using to expand its influence beyond Pakistan and specifically in Syria, officials said.

FIF has also been supporting the cause of Kashmiri separatists and Palestinians but has lately started seeking funds for Syrian refugees and has been organising camps along the Syria-Turkey border to provide humanitarian assistance, the R&AW inputs indicate.

The activities of FIF in the Syrian theatre could provide ready-to-use channels for Lakhvi’s efforts to reactivate LeT’s links in the Middle East, officials said, adding that R&AW has pointed out that militant has in the past also received donations from the Al-Qaeda affiliates and trained operatives for suicide bombings.