South Korean authorities arrested a Pakistani man in his 40s, employed as a market clerk in Seoul’s Itaewon district, for his affiliation with Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), the terrorist group responsible for the 2008 Mumbai attacks. The arrest took place on August 2 in Itaewon-dong, Seoul, where the suspect was working at a local market, according to the Gyeonggi Nambu Provincial Police Agency. He was charged with violating South Korea’s Counter-Terrorism Act and Immigration Act.
Investigations revealed that the suspect joined LeT in Pakistan in 2020, receiving training in weapons and infiltration tactics before becoming an official member. He entered South Korea in December 2023 on a visa obtained from a South Korean consulate in Pakistan in September 2023, allegedly by posing as a businessman planning to establish a company. While there is no evidence he planned or executed terrorist acts in South Korea, his LeT membership violates Article 17 of the Counter-Terrorism Act, which bans involvement with terrorist organizations. The suspect denies the allegations.
South Korean Authorities are probing whether he funneled money to LeT. This arrest marks the first instance of South Korean police detaining a member of a UN Security Council-designated terrorist group. LeT, linked to Al-Qaida, Osama bin Laden, and the Taliban, was designated a terrorist organization in May 2005. Operating through its front group, Jamaat-ud-Dawa, LeT has provided training, logistics, and funding for terrorist activities. The group is notorious for the 2008 Mumbai attacks, which killed 175 people, including nine attackers, and a 2025 attack in India-administered Kashmir’s Pahalgam district, claiming 26 lives and injuring 20.
South Korea and Pakistan maintain diplomatic and economic ties, but their relationship is relatively modest compared to their interactions with other nations. Diplomatic ties between South Korea and Pakistan were established in 1983. Both nations maintain embassies in each other’s capitals (Islamabad and Seoul). The two countries cooperate on international platforms like the United Nations and engage in dialogue on issues like trade, education, and cultural exchange. However, their diplomatic engagement is not as deep as South Korea’s ties with major powers like the U.S., China, or Japan, or Pakistan’s relations with countries like China or Saudi Arabia.