SUMMARY

The Lashkar-e-Islam was an armed organisation with a religious and tribal basis in Khyber agency, Pakistan’s Federally Administered Tribal Areas. The organisation primarily consisted of believers of the Sunni Muslim Deobandi sect from the Pashtun tribes in the area.

The LeI was originally formed with a stated objective of fighting criminality in the Khyber agency and implementing the Deobandi application of Islamic law. In order to implement these aims, the organisation presented a 26-point agenda which it intended to promote throughout the region. The agenda included a commitment to the geographical and ideological frontiers of Pakistan, some support to Pakistani security forces in the region, the imposition of sharia law as well as punishments according to tribal traditions, and a ban on all practices considered un-Islamic such as music, dancing, or the practice of other religions.

It is reported that LeI was formed in the Kurram agency by Mufti Munir Shakir in 2004 but that he was forced by local tribal leaders shortly thereafter to move into the Khyber agency. After the group initiated its self-proclaimed campaign against criminality in late 2005 in the Khyber agency, tribal leaders in that region expelled Mufti Munir Shakir. By 2006, the leadership of LeI had passed from the senior cleric to his deputy Mangal Bagh.

On 12 March, 2015, Lashkar-e-Islam joined TTP and ceased being its own actor in UCDP data.

Lashkar-e-Islam has been involved in the intrastate, non-state and one-sided categories of UCDP organised violence.