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.

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.

Authorities in Pakistan resumed rescue and relief work on Monday (August 18, 2025) in the country’s northwest where flash floods have killed over 300 people after heavy rain forced them to suspend operations for several hours, a government official said.

Heavy rains that started on Friday (August 15, 2025) have claimed lives and spread destruction in several northern districts, with most people killed in flash floods, according to the National Disaster Management Authority.

In hilly areas, the rains caused flash floods as well as mud and rock slides that washed away houses, buildings, vehicles and belongings.

Also Read | Pakistan rescuers recover bodies after monsoon rains kill over 340

Buner district was the worst hit, with over 200 deaths.

Heavy rain in the flood-hit areas, including Buner, forced rescue teams to halt relief efforts for several hours on Monday (August 18, 2025), a regional government officer, Abid Wazir, told Reuters.

“Our priority is now to clear the roads, set up bridges and bring relief to the affected people,” he said.

Relief goods have been sent to the affected areas, Information Minister Attaullah Tarar told local Geo News television.

Food, medicine, blankets, camps, an electric generator and de-watering pumps are included in the relief goods, the disaster management authority said in a statement.

Buner, a three-and-a-half-hour drive from the capital Islamabad, was hit by a cloudburst, a rare phenomenon in which more than 100 mm of rain falls within an hour in a small area, officials said.

In Buner, there was more than 150 mm of rain within an hour on Friday (August 15, 2025) morning, they said.

More heavy rain was expected across Pakistan until early September, officials said.

“The current weather system is active over the Pakistan region and may cause heavy to very heavy rainfall during the next 24 hours,” the disaster management authority said on Sunday (August 17, 2025).

Torrential rains and flooding this monsoon season have killed 657 people across Pakistan since late June, it said.

Flash floods triggered by heavy rains killed at least 49 people in northwestern Pakistan and elsewhere in the country over the past 24 hours, officials said Friday (August 15, 2025), as rescuers evacuated 1,300 stranded tourists from a mountainous district hit by landslides.

More than 360 people, mostly women and children, have died in rain-related incidents across Pakistan since June 26. Most of the latest deaths were reported in northern and northwestern Pakistan, according to local officials.

At least 10 people were killed Thursday after being swept away by flash floods in Ghazar district in the Gilgit-Baltistan region, said regional government spokesman Faizullah Faraq.

Another 16 people, including women and children, also died Thursday in Bajaur district in northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province when a massive cloudburst led to flash flooding, said rescue official Amjad Khan. He said 17 others were swept away and remain missing.

Flash floods also hit Battagram, a district in the northwest, killing 10 people, government administrator Saleem Khan said. He said another 18 people were still missing.

Seven more people died Thursday in separate rain-related incidents in Pakistan-administered Kashmir, which is split between Pakistan and India and claimed by both in its entirety, according to the state disaster management authority.

Bilal Faizi, a provincial emergency service spokesman in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, said rescuers worked for hours to save 1,300 tourists after they were trapped by flash flooding and landslides in the Siran Valley in Mansehra district on Thursday.

Faraq said Gilgit-Baltistan has been hit by multiple floods since July, triggering landslides along the Karakoram Highway, a key trade and travel route linking Pakistan and China that is used by tourists to travel to the scenic north.

Pakistan’s President Asif Ali Zardari in a statement expressed his sorrow and grief over the losses and asked authorities to expedite the rescue and relief work in the flood-affected areas.

Gilgit-Baltistan is also home to scenic glaciers that provide 75% of Pakistan’s stored water supply. Pakistan’s disaster management agency has issued fresh alerts for glacial lake outburst flooding in the north, warning travelers to avoid affected areas.

A study released this week by World Weather Attribution, a network of international scientists, found rainfall from June 24 to July 23 was 10% to 15% heavier because of global warming. Experts say sudden, intense downpours over small areas — known as cloudbursts — are becoming increasingly common in the country.

In 2022, the country’s worst monsoon season on record killed more than 1,700 people and caused an estimated $40 billion in damage.