Every year, as India observes the anniversary of the 26/11 Mumbai attacks, the date serves as more than a solemn reminder of loss: it is a stark warning to the world. On that November night in 2008, ten terrorists from the Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) unleashed carnage across Mumbai, killing 166 people, including foreigners from over a dozen countries.
The attack was not the act of a rogue group; it was the work of a terror network nurtured, trained, and protected by Pakistan’s state machinery, primarily its military and intelligence agency, the ISI. Seventeen years later, the lessons of 26/11 remain chillingly relevant. Pakistan has institutionalised terrorism as an instrument of state policy, embedding militant networks into its strategic and foreign policy toolkit.
What began as cross-border militancy directed at India has metastasized into a regional and global menace, with implications stretching from Kashmir to Kabul, and even beyond South Asia’s borders.
A State that Weaponised Terrorism
The 26/11 investigation left little ambiguity about Pakistan’s role. Indian and US intelligence agencies traced calls, funding, and training directly to handlers in Karachi and Muridke, the LeT’s base of operations.
David Headley, a Pakistani-American operative involved in scouting Mumbai targets, confirmed during trial that elements within Pakistan’s ISI supervised the attack. Yet, despite overwhelming evidence and international condemnation, Pakistan refused to prosecute the masterminds, allowing LeT’s chief, Hafiz Saeed, to operate openly under the cover of “charitable” organisations.
This pattern of state complicity is no longer an India-Pakistan issue; it represents a systemic threat to regional and global security. Over decades, Pakistan’s intelligence services have refined the use of jihadist groups such as LeT, Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM), and the Haqqani Network as tools of asymmetric warfare. These groups serve Islamabad’s strategic goals in Afghanistan and Kashmir while offering plausible deniability on the global stage.
Terror’s Cross-Border Web: From Kashmir to Kabul
Pakistan’s terror networks have long operated across multiple theatres. In Afghanistan, the Haqqani Network — described by the US as a “veritable arm” of the ISI — has been instrumental in Taliban offensives, including attacks on Afghan civilians and Western embassies. The network’s leadership has historically found sanctuary in Pakistan’s tribal areas, enjoying the same kind of institutional protection as LeT and JeM.
The US State Department’s Country Reports on Terrorism repeatedly cite Pakistan as a “haven” for UN-listed terrorist groups. Even after the Taliban’s takeover of Afghanistan in 2021, Pakistan’s role in facilitating extremist consolidation has remained under scrutiny.
The Taliban regime’s continued ties with the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), which carries out deadly attacks inside Pakistan itself, show the uncontrollable nature of the monster Islamabad helped create.
Moreover, Pakistan-linked financing networks extend beyond South Asia. From hawala systems that move illicit funds through the Gulf and Africa, to online radicalisation and diaspora fundraising in Europe, Pakistani groups have exploited global loopholes to sustain operations. Such networks link local insurgencies with global jihadist movements, creating a terror finance architecture that transcends borders.
The Economic and Global Fallout
Terrorism backed by Pakistan does not just kill civilians; it cripples economies, stifles trade, and undermines investor confidence. South Asia, home to nearly two billion people, remains among the world’s least economically integrated regions, largely due to chronic instability fueled by cross-border militancy.
Attacks on critical infrastructure, transport corridors, and border trade routes have disrupted commerce and dissuaded multinational investors from entering the region. The stakes are global. Pakistan’s failure to curb terror financing led to repeated scrutiny by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), which grey-listed the country between 2018 and 2022.
During that period, billions of dollars in potential foreign investment were withheld or diverted, and Pakistan’s economy sank deeper into crisis. Yet the core architecture of militant support — training camps, radical madrasas, and covert funding pipelines — remains largely intact. For global supply chains, too, the instability that stems from state-sponsored terrorism poses a real risk. Energy routes through the Arabian Sea, land links via Central Asia, and maritime trade in the Indian Ocean are all vulnerable to spillover from Pakistan-backed extremism.
As analysts have long warned, a nuclear-armed state that uses terrorism as policy is not just a regional anomaly; it is a global danger.
A Message of Consequence
India’s calibrated but firm responses to cross-border terrorism — such as the 2016 surgical strikes, the 2019 Balakot air operation, and most recently, Operation Sindoor — have signaled a shift in approach. They underscore that state-sponsored terrorism will no longer go unanswered, and that impunity for harbouring or exporting terror comes with cost.
But India’s stance also carries a broader message for the world: countering Pakistan’s terror ecosystem is not merely about regional rivalry; it is about safeguarding the rules-based international order. A global failure to hold Islamabad accountable emboldens not only its proxies but also other actors seeking to use terrorism as a political weapon.
As the world marks another anniversary of 26/11, it must recognise that the attack was not an isolated tragedy; it was a symptom of a state-run enterprise of terror that continues to thrive. From Mumbai to Kashmir, from Kabul to the broader Islamic world, Pakistan’s terror apparatus has destabilised nations, cost thousands of lives, and jeopardised global security frameworks. Until the international community addresses this at its roots — with sustained pressure, financial scrutiny, and diplomatic isolation — the flames lit in 2008 will continue to cast their shadow far beyond South Asia.
