Jaish, LeT could gain Hamas, Hezbollah-like status: Former RAW chief

Pakistan-sponsored terror outfits Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) and Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) could achieve the status of Hamas and Hezbollah, powerful long-standing extremist groups based in Palestine and Lebanon respectively, according to a former Indian security official.

"The Laskar-e-Taiba and Jaish (e-Mohammad) are getting stronger and security agencies fear that they will become like Hamas and Hezbollah" said Sen, a former special secretary of the Research and Analysis Wing and advisor to the National Security Council, delivering a lecture at the International Centre here.

Members of the LeT as well as the JeM have been accused of spreading large-scale violence in India over a decade.

While the LeT cadre has been accused of training the batch of terrorists who carried out the 26/11 terror attacks in Mumbai in 2008, JeM has masterminded the attack on the Indian parliament in 2001. JeM has also been accused of sensationally killing American journalist Daniel Pearl in Karachi.

Both the Hamas and Hezbollah are organisations which were started in the mid-1980s as terror outfits, but have evolved in mainstream entities even participating in state election process over the years.