LeT rebuilding its Muridke headquarters in Pakistan using ‘flood relief’ as a front, say security agencies

Globally banned terror outfit Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) has been raising funds through both online and offline drives to construct its headquarters in Muridke, which was struck by the Indian Air Force on May 7, 2025, during Operation Sindoor, according to security agencies.

In May, the Pakistani government had publicly announced that it would finance reconstruction of the LeT and Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) facilities. While it allocated 4 crore Pakistani rupees to the LeT for its headquarters ‘Markaz Taiba’, the estimated cost of full-fledged reconstruction could exceed 15 crore Pakistani rupees.

Also read: The terror trio of Pakistan | Hizb-ul-Mujahideen, LeT and JeM 

According to the agencies, funds are being collected under the guise of “relief for flood victims”, the same modus operandi used during the 2005 Pakistan/Pakistan occupied Jammu & Kashmir (PoJK) earthquake, when the LeT — under the Jamaat-ud-Dawa front — had raised a huge amount of funds, of which about 80% was diverted to build terror infrastructure.

The current trend is that LeT operatives are staging photo opportunities along with Pakistani Rangers and other officials at flood relief sites. “Assessments strongly suggest that the ongoing fundraising campaign by the LeT’s Khidmat-e-Khalaq is a front. While publicly presented as aid for flood victims, the collected money is being diverted into the reconstruction of the Muridke headquarters and other damaged camps,” an official said.

The air strike, conducted precisely at 12:35:22 a.m. Pakistan Standard Time, had targeted three main buildings inside the 1.09-acre Markaz Taiba complex in Muridke. Among the structures destroyed was a red-coloured two-storey building used for cadre accommodation and weapons storage. The other two yellow-coloured buildings were referred as Umm-ul-Qura (‘mother of cities’), which housed training facilities and the residences of senior commanders.

After the structures were damaged, the LeT operators were shifted to Markaz Aqsa in Bahawalpur, and then in July to Markaz Yarmouk in Kasur for training and accommodation under the command of one Abdul Rashid Mohsin. Five excavators were deployed on August 18 and the damaged Muridke buildings razed to the ground by September 7.

“We have information that the deadline for completing the construction work has been set as February 5, 2026, which is observed as Kashmir Solidarity Day in Pakistan. It is to coincide with the LeT’s annual Kashmir-focused jihad convention, as per security agencies. The same day this year, operatives of banned terror outfits, LeT, JeM, and Hizbul Mujahideen, had met with the Hamas leadership in PoJK,” the official said.

“Pakistan has been occupying important positions in international forums on ‘counter-terrorism’ based on false assurances of curbing it. It is now a globally known fact that Pakistan has, instead, been engaging in a proxy war through terror outfits. These outfits frequently change their names to evade international sanctions or to ensure anonymity while carrying out terror strikes in India,” the official said.

Some of these outfits have been identified by the Indian agencies as the People’s Anti-Fascist Front, The Resistance Front, Kashmir Tigers, Tehreek-e-Taliban Kashmir, and the newly formed Mountain Warriors of Kashmir.