Insights from a Database of Lashkar-e-Taiba and Hizb-ul-Mujahideen Militants |
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Authors: | C. Christine Fair |
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Affiliation: | Georgetown University’s Security Studies Program, Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service, Washington DC, USA |
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Abstract: | This article uses a novel database of 1,625 posthumously published biographies of members of two Islamist militant organizations (Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) and Hizb-ul-Mujahideen (HM)), all of whom were killed in the course of carrying out militant attacks. In general, each biography provides data on the militant’s birthplace, education, recruitment, and training. The number of observations in this database is a full order of magnitude larger than those of previous databases assembled from militant biographies. While the sample of militants in this database is the product of multiple selection effects, analysis of the database undermines many common myths about Pakistani militants and casts doubt on current policy approaches to mitigating Islamist militancy in Pakistan. |
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Keywords: | Pakistani Terrorism Terrorist Recruitment Quality of Terror Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) and Hizbul Mujahideen (HM) Kashmir India-Pakistan Conflict |
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