The Palestinian Hamas Movement recently held a meeting with Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), a Pakistan-based Islamist Jihadist militant organisation driven by a Salafi jihadist ideology, in the South Asian country.

Reports suggest that senior Hamas commander Naji Zaheer and LeT commander Rashid Ali Sandhu were seen on the same stage at an event hosted by Pakistan Markazi Muslim League (PMML), which is widely believed to be the political front of the LeT, in Gujranwala in the second week of January 2026. An undated video of that event is circulating on social media in which many, including Sandhu, can be seen presenting bouquets to the chief guest, Zaheer. As per the global media, Zaheer and Sandhu held a meeting on the sidelines of the event.

It may be noted that the Hamas commander visited Pakistan a number of times in the past. He, along with other Hamas leaders, toured Pakistan-occupied-Kashmir (PoK) in February 2025 and delivered an anti-India speech at a joint gathering of commanders from the LeT and Jaish-e-Mohammed, a Deobandi-jihadist Pakistani militant group active in PoK. He delivered the speech just weeks before the Pahalgam terror attack on April 22, 2025, an Islamist terrorist attack on tourists by at least three armed terrorists in India-administered-Kashmir in which 26 civilians were killed.

Zaheer visited Pakistan several times in 2023 and 2024, as well. Interestingly, the Hamas leader arrived in Pakistan to meet Maulana Fazl-ur-Rehman, the Chief of the country’s largest Islamist political party, Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam, on October 14, 2023, just a week after the October 7 terror attack in southern Israel. According to political analysts, his repeated visits to Pakistan, meetings with leaders of terrorist organisations and speeches highlight the deep relationship between Hamas and Islamabad.

The videos of his latest visit have come to light a month after the Donald Trump Administration urged the Pakistani Army to send its troops to Gaza as a part of (Washington DC’s) stabilisation process in the Palestinian territory. President Trump’s 20-point Gaza plan calls for an international force to oversee a transition period for reconstruction and economic recovery in the war-torn territory, decimated by over two years of war.

Indian and international security agencies have long expressed serious concern over links between Pakistan-based terror outfits and global jihadist movements. Although the latest developments have raised fresh alarms in India and beyond, Pakistan has denied harbouring terrorist groups on its soil. However, such gatherings say otherwise.

While Islamabad has not officially commented on this specific meeting, reports suggest that it could complicate regional security dynamics.

Meanwhile,

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Published by Koushik Das

Koushik Das (born on May 16, 1976 in Kolkata) is a career journalist. Based in the Indian capital of New Delhi, Koushik writes mainly about foreign policies and current geopolitical issues, and rarely about other topics. His own political ideas are highly influenced by Antonio Gramsci, Louis Althusser, Michel Foucault, Michael Oakeshott and others. English philosopher and political theorist Oakeshott (Dec 11, 1901-Dec 19, 1990) says that “in political activity, men sail a boundless and bottomless sea. There is neither harbour for shelter nor floor for anchorage, neither starting-place, nor appointed destination. But we have to keep afloat”. (Rationalism in Politics, 1962) As a student of Political Science, Koushik loves to share his views on issues, which have great impacts on his thought process (and also on India, South Asia and of course on the global community), with his readers through his website – Boundless Ocean of Politics. By doing so, he tries to keep himself afloat. You will find some of his articles in https://inserbia.info/today/ (https://inserbia.info/today/author/kou_das13_i/), as he has been trying to assess the global geopolitics since 2003. You can also mail him at kousdas@gmail.com View all posts by Koushik Das