Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) is a Islamist-Jihadist Pakistani militant organization driven by a Salafi jihadist ideology. The organisation's primary stated objective is to merge the whole of Kashmir with Pakistan. It was founded in 1985–1986 by Hafiz Saeed, Zafar Iqbal Shehbaz, Abdullah Azzam and several other Islamist mujahideen with funding from Osama bin Laden during the Soviet–Afghan War. It has been designated as a terrorist group by the United Nations and numerous other countries and been responsible for terrorist attacks on civilians in India, such as the 2000 Red Fort attack, 2005 Delhi bombings, 2006 Mumbai train bombings, 2008 Mumbai attacks and the 2025 Pahalgam attack.

It has been supported by Pakistan’s intelligence agency, the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), and is often viewed as a proxy militant organization used by Pakistan against India in the insurgency in Indian-administered Jammu and Kashmir.

Its affiliated front organisations include the Milli Muslim League, a political party, and Jamat-ud-Dawa (JuD), the group's "charity wing". The group differs from most other militant groups in Pakistan in following the Islamic interpretation of Ahl-i Hadith (which is similar to Wahhabism and Salafism), and in foreswearing attacks on the government of Pakistan and sectarian attacks on Pakistanis "who have professed faith" in Islam.

While the primary area of operations of LeT's jihadist activities is the Kashmir Valley, their professed goal is not limited to challenging India's sovereignty over Jammu and Kashmir. LeT sees the issue of Kashmir as part of a wider global struggle. Once Kashmir is liberated, LeT seeks to use it "as a base of operations to conquer India and force Muslim rule to the Indian subcontinent."

LeT’s ideology is fundamentally anti-Western, with the British Raj held responsible for the decline of the Mughal Empire. Consequently, LeT opposes any form of Western or British influence in Pakistan and the broader South Asian region. In its publications and on various platforms, the organization has consistently articulated its primary political goals, which include the destruction of India, Hinduism, and Judaism. The organization considers jihad a religious duty for all Muslims, with the establishment of a caliphate as its central religious and political objective.

C. Christine Fair, who has analyzed LeT propaganda since 1995, notes that the militant organization has consistently condemned what it describes as a "Brahmanic-Talmudic-Crusader" alliance of Hindus, Jews, and Christians, whom it accuses of collaborating to undermine the Ummah.

Its followers are proponents of the South Asian group Ahl-e-Hadith (AeH) Islam, which is considered Salafist. It has adopted maximalist agenda of global jihad including attacks on civilians. The group justifies its ideology on verse 2:216 of the Quran.

Fighting has been made obligatory upon you ˹believers˺, though you dislike it. Perhaps you dislike something which is good for you and like something which is bad for you. Allah knows and you do not know.