New Delhi, July 20, 2026
Taiyabbat, the Lashkar-e-Taiba’s all-women wing, was established in 2025. By early 2026, the wing gained traction with several women being recruited. Today, the wing is fully functional, and what has surprised the Indian agencies is that a majority of the recruits have joined the group voluntarily.
In addition to undertaking radicalisation activity, this wing of the dreaded Lashkar-e-Taiba has also taken the lead in undertaking training in Artificial Intelligence (AI). The Lashkar-e-Taiba, which had recently spoken about the importance of AI in future propaganda and attacks, has seen a large number of women undertaking training. Many of those who have been trained in the last few months are also imparting lessons to the newer recruits, the Indian agencies have found.
An Intelligence Bureau official said that Taiyabbat will soon go on to become more dangerous than its parent outfit, the Lashkar-e-Taiba. Post Operation Sindoor, the Lashkar-e-Taiba has struggled to revive itself. The recruitment slowed down considerably with questions being raised about the effectiveness of the leadership, the official also added.
However, that is not the case when it comes to Taiyabbat. Ever since its formation, nearly 80 per cent of the recruitment has been voluntary in nature. This is a dangerous sign, an official said. This shows the willingness of these women to be part of a terror group. It also shows the hatred that these women have towards India, the official also added.
Another official said that the women recruits appear to be taking the lead role in almost all departments. They are not yet training to become suicide bombers or undertake terror attacks. However, they have taken the lead when it comes to running radicalisation programmes, recruitment camps, propaganda drives and now AI, the official added.
When the Indian armed forces carried out Operation Sindoor to avenge the Pahalgam attack, the Lashkar-e-Taiba suffered immense losses. India’s precision strikes killed over 100 terrorists. These included two top Lashkar-e-Taiba commanders — Khalid alias Abu Akasha and Mudassar Khadian Khas alias Abu Jindal.
Further, the Lashkar-e-Taiba, Jaish-e-Mohammad and Hizbul Mujahideen lost nine camps during the operation. Officials say that the Lashkar-e-Taiba leadership, while commencing operations of the Taiyabbat, relied largely on photographs showing dead terrorists while recruiting the women. This was the first step, and the women were drawn towards the group due to sympathetic reasons.
The official said that this eventually became a chain reaction and that almost all the recruitment was voluntary in nature. For the Indian agencies, while the voluntary recruitments are a matter of huge concern, the other issue is that these women are very good at roping in the youth for the Lashkar-e-Taiba.
The outfit is in desperate need of more youth, and this is now being handled by the Taiyabbat, an official said. However, the same cannot be said about the Jamaat-ul-Muminat (JuM), the women’s wing of the Jaish-e-Mohammed. The outfit, headed by Sadiya Azhar, the sister of Jaish-e-Mohammed chief Masood Azhar, was launched in October 2025. The JuM is functional, but its activities are nothing compared to those of the Taiyabbat, an official said.
This is more to do with the fact that Lashkar-e-Taiba chief Hafiz Saeed remains much more functional and visible when compared to Masood Azhar. The Jaish-e-Mohammed chief has remained largely invisible post Operation Sindoor. Officials say that his health is bad and he has not recovered from the loss of his family members during Operation Sindoor.(Agency)
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