When Pakistan’s defence minister Khawaja Asif publicly admitted earlier this year that the country “supported, funded and aided terror groups for 30 years,” he was stating something what the world had already known, but Pakistan long denied. His remarks were soon echoed by senior PPP leader Sherry Rehman, who admitted Pakistan was “trying very hard” to clean its “terrorist record.”
But what do these confessions mean in real terms? They point to a chilling reality: that Pakistan not only tolerated but actively nurtured terrorist groups like Brigade 313, a little-known but deadly outfit operating as Al-Qaeda’s covert paramilitary wing in the region.
In a recent interview with Sky News anchor Yalda Hakim, Sherry Rehman was confronted with questions about Brigade 313, described by intelligence analysts as "Al-Qaeda in Pakistan" — an umbrella that unites various extremist groups under a single operational command. Hakim directly cited Brigade 313 as a lethal coalition involving Taliban offshoots, Harkat-ul-Jihad al-Islami, and even Pakistani intelligence-linked factions. This was no slip of tongue. This was a spotlight on the ghost army Islamabad has long used as a proxy while pretending to be a victim of terrorism.
What is Brigade 313?
Brigade 313 is a clandestine, elite militant unit affiliated with al-Qaeda’s South Asia’s operations. Found in the mid-2000s under Ilyas Kashmiri, a former Pakistani commando-turned-jihadist, the outfit has operated as Al-Qaeda’s strike force within Pakistan – executing high-profile missions, coordinating with other jihadist outfits, and evading global counterterrorism radar through white-labelling tactics.
The name “313” comes from Islamic symbolism: the 313 soldiers who fought alongside Prophet Muhammad in the Battle of Badr. But in the context of this terror brigade, it represents a mythologised jihadist narrative – a call to arms dressed in religious legitimacy to inspire violence.
How Brigade 313 operates as Al-Qaeda’s shadow army
· Unlike groups like Jaish-e-Mohammed or Lashkar-e-Taiba that openly claim responsibility for attacks, Brigade 313 operates in the shadows. It often carries out “white-label” terror operations – attacks that are never formally claimed, but widely attributed to its operatives. This allows Al-Qaeda to deny direct involvement, Pakistan to avoid global scrutiny, and state-backed actors to distance themselves from responsibility.
· Brigade 313 functions not as a standalone group, but as a glue that binds Pakistan’s terror proxies. It coordinates with Haqqani Network, LeT and JeM, and recruits from ex-servicemen and intelligence-linked networks. The umbrella outfit operates across FATA, Balochistan, and urban hubs like Karachi and Lahore.
History of attacks and operations
Between 2009 and 2011, the Brigade 313 – under Ilyas Kashmiri’s leadership – carried out attacks on Pakistan’s own military headquarter, plotted assassination attempts against foreign envoys, and helped Al-Qaeda launch operations across Afghanistan and Kashmir.
After 2011, when Kashmiri was reportedly killed in a drone strike, Brigade 313 did not disband; it restructured under AQIS (Al-Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent). It began outsourcing attacks to “rebranded” groups — TRF, PAFF, and others active in Kashmir.
In the recent years, it has assisted Al-Qaeda-linked networks in embedding operatives in Pakistan’s tribal belts, and execute “sleeper cell” style operations against India and Afghanistan.
Why Pakistan shields Brigade 313
Pakistan's entire terror doctrine rests on maintaining strategic depth through proxies. For decades, its military-intelligence complex sheltered Osama bin Laden in Abbottabad, used LeT and JeM to bleed India by a “thousand cuts”, and embraced the Taliban as a “strategic asset”.
Brigade 313 fits perfectly into this playbook; a ghost unit that does the dirty work, never appears on official watchlists, and leaves no paper trail linking back to Rawalpindi.
Brigade 313 is more than just a terror outfit. It is a case study in how a nuclear-armed state has turned terrorism into an instrument of state policy. While Pakistani politicians now attempt to whitewash the past with talk of “cleansing records,” outfits like Brigade 313 still operate in the shadows, protected by layers of intelligence cover, plausible deniability, and a global system too afraid to call Pakistan’s bluff.
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