Lashkar-e-Islam

Lashkar-e-Islam (, abbr. LeI), also written as Laskhar-i Islam, is a Deobandi jihadist militant group that operates in Khyber District, Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Province, Pakistan and the neighboring Nangarhar Province, Afghanistan.

LeI was founded in 2004 as a Deobandi militant group in Khyber Agency (today Khyber District) until it formed an alliance with the Pakistani Taliban (Tehrik-e Taliban, TTP) in 2008 under the pressure of Pakistani counterinsurgency operations against the groups and a desire by the Pakistani Taliban to control the strategic Khyber Pass for attacks on NATO forces in Afghanistan. LeI’s 2008 alliance with the Pakistani Taliban and 2015 partial merger with the group transformed the LeI from a local militant organization to a regional and transnational insurgent organization. Though displaced into Afghanistan in 2014 and weakened by Pakistani and later U.S. military operations, the group had maintained a reduced footprint in Afghanistan and Pakistan.