Working together? What is the relationship between Islamabad and the armed groups?

With India launching missile strikes on what it says are camps associated with militant groups inside Pakistan in retaliation for last month's massacre of Indian tourists in Kashmir, attention has once again focused on what India claims is the relationship between Islamabad and armed groups involved in attacks in the disputed Himalayan region of Kashmir, most prominently Lashkar-e-Taiba.

- Peter Beaumont

What is Lashkar-e-Taiba?
Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) is an Islamic Salafist militant group founded in 1989 in Pakistan, and designated as a terrorist group by many countries. It is notorious for its 2008 attacks on Mumbai which killed 166 people, including several foreign nationals.

Founded as the armed wing of the Markaz Dawat-ul Irshad, the Centre for Proselytisation and Preaching, it emerged during the period of the then Pakistani leader Zia ul-Haq's policy of "Islamisation" that aimed to turn Pakistan into a global centre for political Islam.

Ideologically, LeT expounds a vision of a global Islamic caliphate, including the reclamation of "lost" Islamic lands through the twin efforts of preaching and armed struggle.

The UN security council says LeT has conducted "numerous terrorist operations" against military and civilian targets since 1993, including attacks on Mumbai commuter trains in July 2006 and a December 2001 attack on India's parliament.