Factbox-Who are Pakistan-based LeT and JeM groups targeted by Indian strikes?

By Krishna N. Das and Gibran Naiyyar Peshimam

India said on Wednesday it hit nine sites in Pakistan "from where terrorist attacks against India have been planned and directed", following last month's deadly attack in Kashmir.

The nuclear-armed neighbours have fought two wars since independence from colonial ruler Britain in 1947 over the mainly Muslim region that both rule in part, while claiming in full.

New Delhi blamed last month's attack in a scenic Himalayan meadow on a group linked to Lashkar-e-Taiba, an Islamist militant outfit based in Pakistan.

Pakistan, which denies any involvement in the Kashmir attack, said the Indian strikes killed 26 civilians and its forces downed five Indian fighter jets.

It vowed to respond "to this aggression at a time, place, and means of our own choice".

India said seven of its targets were used by Lashkar-e-Taiba and Jaish-e-Mohammed, both Islamist groups designated "terrorist" organisations by the U.N. Security Council.

For decades Hindu-majority India has accused Pakistan of supporting Islamist militants in attacks on Indian interests, especially in Kashmir.

Pakistan denies such support and in turn accuses India of supporting separatist rebels in Pakistan, which New Delhi denies.

LASHKAR-E-TAIBA

Lashkar-e-Taiba, or the "army of the pure", is based in Pakistan's most populous province of Punjab and has long focused on fighting Indian rule in Kashmir.

The U.N. Security Council says it has conducted "numerous terrorist operations" against military and civilian targets since 1993, including November 2008 attacks in India's commercial capital of Mumbai that killed 166.

Hafiz Saeed, who founded LeT around 1990, has denied any role in the attack.

The United Nations says LeT has also been implicated in attacks on Mumbai commuter trains in July 2006 and a December 2001 attack on India's parliament.

Muridke, just outside Punjab's capital of Lahore, is believed to be home to the sprawling 200-acre (81-hectare)headquarters of organisations affiliated with LeT.

India says it struck Muridke's Markaz Taiba, a site about 25 km (16 miles) from the border, where the Mumbai attackers had been trained. The term Markaz means headquarters.

Pakistan says the group has been banned and neutralised. Arrested in 2019, Saeed was convicted of numerous terrorism financing charges and is serving a 31-year jail term.

Critics say the group, rebranded in the guise of a charity, maintains a strong network in the region.

JAISH-E-MOHAMMAD

Also based in Punjab is Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM), or Army of the Prophet Mohammad, founded by Masood Azhar on his release from prison in India in 1999.

The deal was an exchange for 155 hostages held on an Indian Airlines flight hijacked to Afghanistan's southern city of Kandahar, the U.N. Security Council has said.

Pakistan banned the group in 2002 after it, along with LeT, was blamed for the 2001 attack on India's parliament.

The group had links with al Qaeda, founded by Osama bin Laden, and the Taliban, the U.N. Security Council has said.

JeM is believed to be based in Pakistan's central city of Bahawalpur, also in Punjab.

It has claimed responsibility for numerous suicide bombings in Kashmir, where India has battled an armed insurgency since the late 1980s, though violence has abated in recent years.

India said it attacked Bahawalpur's Markaz Subhan Allah, which it called JeM's headquarters, located about 100 km (62 miles) from the border.

Despite Pakistan's 2002 ban on JeM, U.S. and Indian authorities say it still operates openly there.

Azhar has disappeared from the public eye except for sporadic reports of his presence close to the city, where he runs a religious institution.