LeT leaders, ISI officials, and Punjab Assembly Speaker unite in public call for jihad against India

The rhetoric at the rally was explicitly anti-India. Slogans such as “Kashmir banega Pakistan, Jammu banega Pakistan, Punjab banega Khalistan” were repeatedly chanted, pointing toward coordinated efforts to foment separatist violence in India. Kasuri, who faces allegations of directing recent terror strikes, not only took pride in his notoriety but also issued new threats against Indian civilians, with particular emphasis on attacks targeting Hindus.

One of the most alarming aspects of the rally was the open display of ISI’s endorsement. Posters of General Asim Munir, Pakistan’s current Field Marshal and ISI-backed army chief, were prominently featured, indicating official military patronage of the event and the ideology it promoted. Security arrangements by Pakistan’s forces around the rally added weight to these implications.

Such public displays of unity between terrorists, military, and elected officials are stark reminders that Pakistan’s claim of fighting terror is hollow. It also underscores how groups like LeT continue to function with state legitimacy, despite being designated as terror organizations by the UN, the U.S., and the EU.

Pakistan’s Deep State and the Normalization of Terror Networks

This rally is not an isolated event—it is part of a long-standing ISI strategy that involves using jihadi organizations as proxies against India. This pattern involves enabling terrorist actors to operate with protection from prosecution while simultaneously allowing political leaders to share public space with them. It is a strategy aimed at maintaining plausible deniability on the international stage while destabilizing India through communal incitement and terror attacks.

The international community has consistently flagged this issue. LeT has been under UN Security Council sanctions since 2005 and U.S. terror designations since 2001. However, its leadership remains free and active inside Pakistan. At the rally, Talha Saeed even claimed that the Pahalgam attack was a “drama,” while boasting that his father, Hafiz Saeed, continues to receive state protection. This admission reinforces global suspicions about Pakistan’s duplicity in anti-terror commitments.

The ISI’s consistent use of such organizations serves two objectives: provoking sectarian and communal tensions in India, especially around Kashmir and Punjab, and using terror as a tool of foreign policy under the guise of non-state actors. The normalization of such ideologies within mainstream political and military structures only emboldens future violence.