Saeed, Lakhvi at war: Is the Lashkar heading for a two-way split?

Lakhvi who is considered to be the father of all jihadis was upset that he was not consulted before the Kashmir unrest was planned.

Are the number 1 and his next in command in the Lashkar-e-Tayiba at war with each other. The appointment of Abdul Rehman Makki as the chief of the Lashkar-e-Tayiba and the Jamaat-ud-Dawa has not gone down too well with Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi, the plotter-in-chief of the Mumbai 26/11 attack.

The problem between Lakhvi and Lashkar founder Hafiz Saeed began with the planning of the Kashmir unrest. Lakhvi felt that the planning which was approved by Saeed was not sustainable and the outfit needed to go harder in Kashmir.

Lakhvi who is considered to be the father of all jihadis was upset that he was not consulted before the unrest was planned.

This led to a rift with his mentor Saeed who went to appoint Makki, his brother-in-law as the chief of the outfit. Saeed appointed a successor after he was placed under house arrest by the Pakistan agencies. Intelligence Bureau officials say that the rift is a serious one. There is a good chance that the LeT may split into two.

Lakhvi moving away from the LeT would deal a bloody blow to the outfit. He has several supporters and if he leaves, he would take them all with him. What works for Lakhvi is that the fighters of the outfit back him considering he is the one who has trained most of them in the capacity of the operations commander of the outfit.

While Lakhvi always handled the operations part of the group, Saeed was an ideological mentor. Both had become crucial to the outfit and the LeT needs them in order to be the lethal force that it is. The Inter-Services Intelligence, which nurtures the outfit has still not been able to find a solution to the problem, IB officials say.

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