What We Know About the Terrorist Groups India Said It Targeted

The spark for the latest conflict between India and Pakistan, the most expansive fighting between the two countries in decades, was a terrorist attack on civilians in Kashmir last month.

The Indian government had been projecting calm on its side of the disputed Kashmir region. A group of militants managed to puncture that image. They came out of the woods in a scenic picnic spot and killed 26 men. The men, almost all of them Hindu, were singled out for their religion, and many of them were killed in front of their wives and families, according to witness accounts.

A little-known group called the Resistance Front claimed responsibility. The Indian government said that the group was a front for a broader terrorist apparatus that has operated out of Pakistan. Pakistan has rejected those claims.

Here is what we know about the groups that India said it had targeted in its military strikes.

What are the two main groups India targeted?

Lashkar-e-Taiba, which was founded in the 1980s, has long been suspected of planning from Pakistan some of the worst terrorist attacks in India. It was added to a United Nations sanctions list in 2005.

One of the deadliest attacks the group orchestrated was a 2008 terror attack in Mumbai, during which more than 160 people were killed. Nearly a dozen gunmen arrived on boats and held hostages at a major hotel for days. One of the attackers was captured alive, and much of the account of the attack’s ties to Pakistan came from his confessions. He was sentenced in India in 2010 and executed in 2012.

Pakistan has confirmed Lashkar-e-Taiba’s links to past violence in India but says that the group was outlawed and disbanded long ago. The group’s founder, Hafiz Saeed, is free despite brief periods of detention, and Indian officials say that the group continues its activities through cover organizations and offshoots, such as the Resistance Front.