It may be recalled that Al Badr Mujahideen, previously known as Al Badr, is named after the historic Battle of Badr (near the present day Medina) fought and won by the followers of the Holy Prophet Mohammad on March 17, 624, against the army of Mecca.
This victory is seen by Muslims as due to divine intervention and as heralding the beginning of the conquest of the world by Islam. This battle finds special mention in the Quran.
Al Badr Mujahideen, which is the oldest of the existing jihadi terrorist organisations of Pakistan and is considered as close to the ISI and the Lashkar-e-Tayiba, is known in the jihadi circles as one of the richest of the terrorist organisations.
Like the LeT, it is Wahabi in orientation, and, again like the LeT, has not come to notice for any anti-Shia acts of terrorism.
While Punjabi Muslims constitute the largest single group in the LeT, which has its headquarters at Muridke in Pakistani Punjab, Pashtuns constitute the largest single group in Al Badr Mujahideen, which has its central headquarters, located at the Mansehra district in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province. Al Badr was the first jihadi organisation to introduce suicide terrorism in the sub-continent -- in the Indian-administered Jammu & Kashmir.
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