Despite its moral posturing vis-a-vis cross-border terrorism, Pakistan harbours the dream of carving out at least three states for Muslims in India - an indication to this effect is available from information revealed by terrorists apprehended in the Jammu and Kashmir region, according to a top officer of the Border Security Force (BSF).
Speaking to The Pioneer on the condition of anonymity, the BSF officer said on Wednesday that the interrogation of those arrested indicated their renewed resolve to carry out terrorist strikes all over the country. The twin attack in Mumbai on Monday was the first in the series, he said.
As per the indications, Pakistani designs hinge on sustained terrorist strikes in the major parts of India by the cadres of the Students' Islamic Movement of India (SIMI), trained by Hizbul Mujahideen (HuM), and other terrorist groups. The BSF officer said by engineering mass scale infiltration of Bangladeshis into Assam in the Northeast, the ISI appears to have managed a foothold in that region.
The demographic balance of the state, he felt, has been totally altered. Pakistan wants to engineer large-scale unrest to achieve its goal, the BSF officer said.
Before 1988, everything was quiet in the Kashmir valley. The scenario, however,changed after the ISI launched "Operation Topac" to separate Jammu and Kashmir from India. The officer said since then, every murder, every bomb blast,every rape and every massacre has had the markings of Pakistani sponsored terrorism.
The interrogations, he said, also revealed that the Southern Peninsula has been the target of the ISI for fomenting trouble in this part of India. SIMI's activists,who reportedly went underground after the organisation was banned,have started to resurface on the instructions of the ISI for carrying out its hideous objective, the officer added.
Pakistani military commanders and the ISI have been indulging in a covert operation to separate Jammu and Kashmir in the North, create a Muslim majority state in the North-East and carve out another state on the same lines in the South, the BSF officer said. In order to fulfil its nefarious objective, the ISI has directed the commanders of various terrorist outfits to carry out large scale bombings all over the country, according to the officer.
Ahal-e-Hadis, the organisation, which once worked under the command of Abdul Karim Tunda,a hardcore LeT sympathiser, has surfaced again. This outfit, involved in the Delhi blasts of 1997, specialises in Improvised Explosive Devices(IEDs). Overtly a religious movement, Hadis possesses an army of highly indoctrinated youths, who could assemble and plant bombs, the officer said.
The vast network of underworld Don Dawood Ibrahim Kaskar, who has a free hand to go about his ways in Pakistan,is being used for reaching arms and explosives to the terrorist outfits. In this connection, the officer warned that Monday's twin blasts in Mumbai, where RDX was used by the terrorists, indicate that such attacks will happen again.
The interrogation of the terrorists belonging to Lashkar-e- Tayyeba (LeT), Jaish-e-Mohammad(JeM) and Al-Badr has revealed the Pakistani authorities' sinister planning in league with the ISI, the BSF officer
Cadres of the Students' Islamic Movement of India (SIMI),who have been lying low after being banned, were in fact being trained clandestinely by ISI operatives with the aim of launching subversive strikes in the country. The officer also said the interrogation of the terrorists has revealed that they are ready to launch such attacks at important places in India for creating terror among the people. "They have been indoctrinated to such an extent that now they are talking about balkanising India by carrying out large scale terrorist strikes," he said.
According to latest intelligence inputs, "International Islamic Army", a newly formed terrorist group in neighbouring Sri Lanka has urged Muslims to take up arms. Said to be an off-shoot of the Taliban, and the supporter of the fugitive Osama Bin Laden, this group has ganged up with various outfits active in the Kashmir valley. The possibility of them launching a strike in Delhi can not be ruled out, the officer added.
Delhi being the Capital, always
remains on the top of their agenda. The officer said although terrorist
groups have failed to make any headway in Delhi after the security was
beefed up following the attack on Parliament in December, 2001, there are
indications that groups owing allegiance to Pakistan, might target places
of importance in the Capital.