New Delhi, November 7: Operation Sindoor has dealt a major blow to Pakistan's terror infrastructure, forcing the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) to overhaul the operational structure of Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM), Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) and Hizbul Mujahideen, the news agency IANS reported on Saturday, citing intelligence assessments and Intelligence Bureau officials.

Source: IANS via Tripura Times

According to the report, the destruction of the JeM headquarters in Bahawalpur and the LeT's key training facility in Muridke during Operation Sindoor exposed the vulnerability of maintaining large, centralised terror hubs. The ISI, along with the chiefs of the three outfits, carried out these assessments, IANS said.

The assessment led the ISI to suggest setting up multiple bases across Pakistan instead of focusing on one main command or training centre, the report said. The Bahawalpur headquarters, it said, stands as a symbolic structure today, and the Muridke training facility of the LeT was also rebuilt after Operation Sindoor. The ISI has also helped Hizbul Mujahideen rebuild its training and transit facility, the Markaz Raheel Shahid at Koti in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir, according to the report.

An Intelligence Bureau official told IANS that intercepts picked up during the rebuilding exercise indicate the rebuilt facilities will remain symbolic in nature, that major attacks will not be executed from the multiple training facilities that have been set up, and that the ISI has directed the outfits to maintain a very low profile while training at these facilities.

Under the new strategy described in the report, all three terror groups would work alongside each other with no division, and attacks would be unified. Hafiz Saeed, Masood Azhar and Syed Salahuddin would remain only symbolic and ideological heads, while real control would rest with the ISI, the report said, adding that day-to-day affairs are overseen directly by ISI officers it named.

Another official told IANS that the command centre for these outfits is based in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, while training facilities are spread across Islamabad, Rawalpindi, Muzaffarabad and Rawalakot — four to five facilities in each place, with training imparted at various levels and operatives rotated between hubs rather than remaining at one.

A separate report earlier this week, carried by Inshorts citing a news report, had also said Pakistan was shifting from centralised terror hubs to smaller regional hubs after Operation Sindoor — a broader pattern consistent with the multi-camp picture described by officials to IANS on Saturday.

Source: Inshorts