Mothers play a crucial role in LeT recruitment: Christine Fair

BENGALURU: "Son, I don't want you to come back alive. I want you to become a martyr in the Jihad war. Once you go to Allah, you can take me to heaven" these are the words a mother will tell her son while sending him to join combat operations of UN designated terrorist outfit Laskhar-e-Taiba, according to American political scientist and security expert Ms Christine Fair.

Sharing her experience about LeT at the Bangalore Literature Festival on Sunday, Ms Christine who has also authored a book- 'In their own words: Understanding Laskhar-e-Taiba' said "LeT is a

competent agency trained by the Pakistani army to wage proxy wars against India."

Unlike other terrorist outfits which attack Pakistan, LeT is very pro- Pakistan and has never attacked the state, she said.

Giving insights into how LeT recruits men for its forces, Ms Christine said "Mothers play a crucial role in LeT army recruitment. No mother would wish her son to die. But that's how the LeT has groomed the families. Laskar pays a lot of attention to the families. People who are in high posts in LeT visit the families. When a son dies, they give them money and it's a symbol of pride for the mothers to have lost her son in a LeT war."

She also revealed that 10 out of 100 aspirants keen on becoming LeT operatives get selected for actual terror attack.

"Only the best get selected and the rest are sent back to their families. The LeT ensures that it recruits the best men and by sending the rest back home they are influencing the whole community. This is the way they create more people who would want to be terrorists and get recruited by LeT" Ms Christine said.